Beating the corruptors at their own game: A look back at a decade of implementation of the presumption of money laundering in France

Description

Over one year since the start of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, estimates for the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction are swelling as Russian bombs and missiles continue to fall on the country. Meanwhile, calls are growing louder to use Russian oligarchs' frozen assets by confiscating them permanently and allocating these funds to the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Several jurisdictions have implemented innovative tools, such as non-conviction-based confiscation mechanisms – which allow confiscation in situations where it is not possible to obtain a criminal conviction. Other jurisdictions whose regimes do not provide for non-conviction-based confiscation mechanisms have developed other innovative legal instruments. France has established a powerful tool for prosecuting the offence of money laundering independently of the predicate crime: the presumption of money laundering.

This working paper aims to present the main features of the French presumption of money laundering, and the challenges and the lessons learnt from a decade of implementation by French law enforcement authorities.

Authors

Sara Brimbeuf and Esther Bornstein

Reviewers:

Kush Amin, Gillian Dell, Adam Foldes, Steve Goodrich, Matthew Jenkins, Sophie Lemaître

Date

24/07/2023

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