“Lycamobile strongly denies all allegations of wrongdoing as reported by BuzzFeed media and subsequent news reports,” said a statement issued by Lycamobile’s PR company.
The statement continued: “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 report by BuzzFeed said that French authorities had raided the Paris office of mobile virtual operator Lycamobile, arrested 19 executives and charged nine of them. According to BuzzFeed News, the charges are linked to suspicions of money laundering and tax fraud.
The Lycamobile statement continued: “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.”
An executive at Harvard Public Relations, which is part of the Chime Communications group, said: “We are just providing a standard statement,” and added: “[Lycamobile] executives are not commenting beyond this.”
