Oussama Ammar, cofounder of French startup accelerator The Family, is under investigation by France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) for tax fraud and laundering of the proceeds, AFP reports.
The PNF, a national agency in charge of investigating serious economic and financial crimes, is said to have launched a preliminary investigation into Ammar in 2023, following a complaint from the French finance ministry.
While exact details remain unknown, the finance ministry typically files complaints with the PNF when it uncovers potential fraud during tax audits.
A preliminary investigation is the first step conducted to determine whether there is enough evidence to justify a full investigation. “It opened in 2023, we are in 2026, I haven’t been formally charged,” Ammar told Sifted.
Who is Oussama Ammar?
Ammar cofounded The Family, one of France’s most influential startup organisations, in 2013 alongside Nicolas Colin and Alice Zagury.
The organisation has suffered one of French tech’s ugliest startup fights in recent years, as The Family accuses Ammar, who left in 2022, of having embezzled millions from the company and its investors. Ammar denies the accusations.
Multiple legal proceedings were filed in France, the UK and the Cayman Islands. These are separate from the preliminary inquiry carried out by the PNF.
Last year in the UK, the court found Ammar liable for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against The Family, and ordered to pay £6.48m (€7.56m) in damages. It followed another decision against Ammar in the Cayman Islands in 2023, in which the court ordered that he pay €7.3m in damages to The Family.
Sifted understands a criminal procedure is also underway in France for breach of trust, forgery and money laundering, which opened following several complaints filed by The Family. Ammar was reportedly taken into custody in 2025 as part of this procedure.
“I was let out after a few questions and, for the first time in four years, I was finally able to give my version of events,” Ammar wrote at the time in a LinkedIn post.
