Share scheme ‘victims’ set to call for EU intervention

Date:24/07/03

By Karen Carstens

LA POSTE, the French national postal service, has come under fire from angry retirees who allege they have been misled by a share scheme that duped them into losing their money.

If La Poste refuses to produce the cash to reimburse them, and the French government fails to intervene, then the victims plan to turn to the European Union for assistance.

The trouble began some three years ago, when several major French banks, insurance companies and La Poste encouraged people to invest their money in the stock market, or in mutual funds held by La Poste or La Caisse d'Epargne, the nation's biggest savings institution.

"They really made an effort to get people to invest their savings like this in 2000," said Jean-Claude Delarue, a 63-year-old, Paris-based university lecturer, who is also president of the group SOS Petits Porteurs (SOS Small Investors).

Retirees in particular were targeted, he said, and were allegedly told by La Poste that its Benefic mutual shares were a safe way to invest.

These promised returns of up to 23% within three years (7.14% annually).

Approximately 300,000 people, 80% of whom are retirees, who took the Benefic option, now say they have lost money.

"Some people have lost up to 60% of their life's savings," said Delarue.

They claim La Poste misled them with promises of financial security, assuming that they could trust a state-run public service more than a private financial institution or bank, and now they want their money back.

Delarue said some 80,000 people, again mostly retirees, are reportedly also affected by similar mutual fund-style schemes offered by La Caisse d'Epargne.

As one angry family member of one of the victims put it: "They have been sacrificed on the altar of the declining stock market on one hand because of their ignorance of it and on the other by deceptive promises."

Enter Delarue and his SOS Petits Porteurs, which have spearheaded talks with La Poste and several officials in Paris in an effort to redress the retirees collective plight.

Some progress has been made, he said, with the so-called mediateur for La Poste, François Arlon, allegedly having indicated that up to one-third of those affected might be fully reimbursed.

But Arlon told European Voice he could not divulge any figures at present. "I carefully study individual cases," he said, in an effort to explain the outwardly byzantine architecture of decision-making processes at La Poste, Europe's second-largest postal group, and the fourth-largest worldwide.

Still, Delarue said it looked as though several of the retirees could be reimbursed "by October or November".

Two 94-year-old men, for example, would be at the top of the SOS list to have their funds returned from La Poste, he said.

If La Poste refuses to pay up, however, and the French government fails to provide any support in the matter, "then we will look to the EU for assistance", Delarue predicted.

So far, though, no lawsuit has been launched.

"We do not have the class action system here," Delarue said, referring to the more litigious legal system found in the United States.

Delarue said he also aims to forge links with groups representing small investors in Belgium and Germany, "where similar scams have been known to take place".

Retirees from French company La Poste have said they will turn to the EU for help if neither the company nor the French government provide compensation for funds lost through a share scheme, which they claim duped them.