One phone call. €982,000

c'est vrai, quoi!

On that day, Areva's then chief executive Yves Lapierre received a phone call from a man posing as a police inspector in France. The "inspector", who spoke perfect, accent-free French, told Lapierre he was investigating a credit card scam involving an Areva employee.

He said Lapierre needed to transfer €982,000 (HK$10.4 million) to Golden Longon to help the French police track down the credit card ring in Hong Kong. He gained the executive's trust by citing information about Lapierre's whereabouts and the first digit of his credit card.

Lapierre became suspicious only after he approved the fund transfer. He asked Areva's security department to verify the identity of the caller, which it was unable to do. Lapierre resigned in February last year, citing personal reasons.

Longon,.. long gone.