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French authorities have snared a gang of six that allegedly stole €12 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits and laundered the funds through foreign bank accounts and cryptocurrencies, Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, disclosed Wednesday. France and Israel's joint investigation into the group, which controlled 3,600 shell companies and ran a "call center" in Netanya, a coastal resort north of Tel Aviv, began in May 2020 after authorities found commonalities in hundreds of applications for government aid intended to help businesses continue paying their employees during the pandemic-related lockdown. Working from Israel, the gang allegedly submitted 1,200 applications for €182...