Lycamobile dismisses tax allegations

Ethnic MVNO issues strong denial after reports of arrests in France following “cash dumping” claims

Lycamobile has issued a strongly worded rebuttal to reports claiming a number of people linked to the MVNO had been arrested in France on tax fraud allegations.

The ethnic MVNO, which runs on O2 in the UK, claims reports from Buzzfeed News were “unfounded and factually flawed”.

The reports claimed French police had arrested 19 people connected to Lyca after raids on its Paris office last week. It followed an investigation last year that accused the MVNO of dumping “hundreds of thousands of pounds” at locations across London.

In a strongly worded statement, Lycamobile said: “Lycamobile contends that the articles are unfounded and factually flawed. The articles are prejudicial, inflammatory and reckless. They deliberately misinform readers and lead them to conclude that allegations have been made directly against Lycamobile by French authorities when in fact no such allegations have been made.

“The French authorities have not taken any action as alleged by BuzzFeed, against Lycamobile.

“Accordingly, Lycamobile is taking all appropriate legal action to ensure that its reputation is upheld, and to address the denigrating allegations propagated by BuzzFeed.”