A Croatian court had to rent a cinema hall for a hearing Wednesday in the country's largest trial ever involving a pyramid scheme in which hundreds lost millions of euros (dollars).
The Studentski Centar cinema hall in the capital Zagreb was turned into a courtroom as no other judicial premises could accommodate most of some 500 people who had lost their money and wanted to attend the preliminary hearing, officials said.
Nine suspects were charged with taking more than 130 million kunas (17 million euros, $23 million) from some 700 people in the so-called Forex affair between 2007 and 2010.
The nine, who presented themselves as intermediaries, had promised to invest their clients' money in the foreign exchange market.
The money was collected through two firms and partly laundered through purchases of land and other real estate, according to the indictment.
The minimum investment was 5,750 euros, with promised returns of between 100 and 150 percent.
"I thought I would earn something for my older days but I lost everything," a woman who had lost her money told state-run HRT television.
The date for the trial is yet to be set.
A Croatian court had to rent a cinema hall for a hearing Wednesday in the country’s largest trial ever involving a pyramid scheme in which hundreds lost millions of euros (dollars).
The Studentski Centar cinema hall in the capital Zagreb was turned into a courtroom as no other judicial premises could accommodate most of some 500 people who had lost their money and wanted to attend the preliminary hearing, officials said.
Nine suspects were charged with taking more than 130 million kunas (17 million euros, $23 million) from some 700 people in the so-called Forex affair between 2007 and 2010.
The nine, who presented themselves as intermediaries, had promised to invest their clients’ money in the foreign exchange market.
The money was collected through two firms and partly laundered through purchases of land and other real estate, according to the indictment.
The minimum investment was 5,750 euros, with promised returns of between 100 and 150 percent.
“I thought I would earn something for my older days but I lost everything,” a woman who had lost her money told state-run HRT television.
The date for the trial is yet to be set.
