Introduction

Matrix organization

Mergers by absorption

Risks related to the expansion of the scope of criminal liability of legal entities

Validity conditions

Proof of delegation

Exemption from individual liability of delegator

Attribution of offense to legal entity

Delegations of authority

Criminal risk management within business organizations

Complicity in crimes against humanity

Breaches of secrecy

Personal data breaches

Theft

Extortion

Blackmail

Fraud

Misappropriation

Receiving/concealment of unlawfully obtained property (recel)

Attacks on automated data processing systems

Money laundering

Misappropriation by public official (concussion)

Corruption and influence peddling

Unlawful acquisition of an interest

Favoritism

Forgery and use of forgeries

Violation of Criminal Code

Offenses under the Monetary and Financial Code

Offenses under the Commercial Code

Environmental Code violations

Offenses arising from other codes

Types of offenses

Offenses under the Criminal Code, the Commercial Code, or the Environmental Code, Criminal procedure

White Collar Crime (en cours)

The act of assisting in the hiding, investing, or converting of the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offense constitutes money laundering, pursuant to Article 324-1, para. 2, of the Criminal Code .
The text expressly punishes the laundering of the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offense. Its implementation requires both the characterization of the constituent elements of the ori …

Constituent elements

The act of assisting in the hiding, investing, or converting of the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offense constitutes money laundering, pursuant to Article 324-1, para. 2, of the Criminal Code .

The text expressly punishes the laundering of the direct or indirect proceeds of a crime or offense. Its implementation requires both the characterization of the constituent elements of the original offense and the fraudulent origin of the laundered proceeds: a causal link between the original offense and the laundered proceeds must be demonstrated. Thus, for checks cashed from companies engaging in undeclared work to be considered as the laundered fraudulent proceeds, they must necessarily correspond to employer's social contributions and charges evaded, the only proceeds that can result from this offense and be subject to laundering .

The text first penalizes the concealment or disguise of the movement of goods. This may involve the creation of false sales certificates, fictitious invoices, and false attestations to enable the marketing of stolen construction equipment , a legal and financial arrangement without justification aimed solely at avoiding the traceability of flows and concealing sums from tax fraud , an international transfer of funds without complying with the reporting obligation , or following a complex mechanism intended to evade tax obligations , or even the failure to declare the income from professional activity .

Placement consists of reintegrating unlawful proceeds into the legal economic circuit , most often through financial institutions, and may take the form of opening a bank account under the name of a fictitious person , depositing cash from offenses into a bank account to repay a loan taken out for building a residence , international transfers of part of the proceeds from a breach of trust offense , or depositing sums from fraud and acts constituting undeclared work into the bank accounts of the defendant's family members . Placement does not necessarily require proof of concealment of the illicit origin of the assets. Thus, the operation of depositing or transferring the proceeds of a crime or offense into a bank account, which introduces illicit funds into the banking circuit, constitutes a placement operation, characterizing, in itself, the offense of money laundering .

Finally, the conversion of the proceeds of the principal offense results in the transformation of illicit resources through lawful operations. Such is the case of the defendant, who allows the deposit of numerous checks into his account from companies employing workers in an irregular situation and subsequently returns the amounts in cash to the workers , or who deposits the proceeds of evaded taxes into various bank accounts opened in his name or that of his wife, and allocates the funds thus placed to finance household expenses, the purchase of used vehicles, as well as the establishment of the capital of a commercial company .

The Monetary and Financial Code devotes Title VI to obligations related to combating money laundering, particularly in connection with terrorist activities, lotteries, or tax evasion and fraud (Art. L. 561-1 et seq. of the Monetary and Financial Code). This preventive mechanism primarily requires individuals who, in the course of their profession, become aware of capital movements, to report transactions and amounts originating from one of the offenses provided for in Article L. 561-15.

Beyond this obligation of declaration and information, payment service providers, bound by a duty of non-interference in their clients' affairs, are not, in principle, required to interfere, conduct investigations, or request justifications for payment requests made, to ensure their regularity. However, this duty of non-interference is limited by a duty of vigilance, which compels them to implement, in particular, systems for identifying and assessing money laundering risks (Art. L. 561-4-1 to L. 561-14-2 Monetary and Financial Code), as well as to conduct investigations or request justifications, to ensure that the requested operations are not risky for clients or third parties, whenever these operations contain an apparent anomaly, whether material or intellectual, either from the documents provided to them, the nature of the operation itself, or the account's functioning .

If the sole failure of a bank to fulfill its due diligence obligations does not constitute assistance in a money laundering operation of the proceeds of offenses committed by its client, the provision of a bank account in one of its branches and the execution of transfer orders of sums, of criminal origin, appearing therein to accounts abroad, are, however, likely to characterize its participation in money laundering operations .

The obligations of vigilance and reporting imposed on financial institutions are solely aimed at combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Victims of fraudulent acts cannot rely on these obligations to claim damages from the financial institution for a breach of the duty of vigilance, as long as no suspicion of this nature affects the origin of the disputed funds .

Cass. crim, 26 January 2022, LawLex202200003035JBJ; 18 September 2024, LawLex202400006617JBJ.

Cass. crim., 26 January 2022, LawLex202200003035JBJ.

Cass. crim., 17 November 2010, LawLex202200009917JBJ.

Cass. crim., 13 September 2023, LawLex202400005249JBJ.

Cass. crim., 18 March 2020, No 18-85.542, LawLex202200009915JBJ.

Cass. crim., 17 June 2015, LawLex202200006659JBJ.

Cass. crim., 27 March 2018, LawLex202200007440JBJ.

CA Paris, 31 January 2024, LawLex202400002707JBJ; CA Paris, 27 March 2024, LawLex202400002831JBJ; CA Versailles, 4 April 2024, LawLex202400002951JBJ;  CA Paris, 12 June 2024, LawLex202400004497JBJ.

Cass. crim., 19 June 2024, LawLex202400004566JBJ.

CA Paris, 31 January 2024, LawLex202400002707JBJ; CA Paris, 27 March 2024, LawLex202400002831JBJ; Versailles, 4 April 2024, LawLex202400002951JBJ;  CA Paris, 12 June 2024, LawLex202400004497JBJ.

Cass. crim., 26 January 2011, LawLex202200007195JBJ.

Cass. crim., 16 January 2019, LawLex202200009918JBJ.

Cass. crim., 18 March 2020, LawLex202200009912JBJ.

Cass. crim., 17 December 2014, LawLex202200007148JBJ; 6 December 2017, LawLex202200006825JBJ.

Cass. crim., 7 May 2019, LawLex202300001311JBJ.

Cass. crim., 18 March 2020, LawLex202200009915JBJ.

Cass. crim., 19 February 1998, LawLex202200006707JBJ.

Cass. crim., 1 February 2017, LawLex202200006654JBJ.

White Collar Crime (en cours)

104. Constituent elements

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

104. Constituent elements

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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