7 charged for selling fake COVID test results at Paris airport

PARIS (AP) — Officials in France said Friday that seven people have been arrested for selling false certificates of negative coronavirus tests to travellers at Paris’s largest airport, Charles de Gaulle.

The six men and one woman ages 29 to 52 were charged with forgery, use of forgery, and complicity in fraud.

The Bobigny prosecutor’s office said the faked certificates were being sold to travellers for 150 to 300 euros ($180 to $360).

The arrests came as part of an investigation that started with the discovery of a passenger who checked in for a September flight to Addis Ababa with a phony document that certified receiving negative test results.

The seven suspects face up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of 375,000 euros ($445,000) if they are convicted.

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