France: International Judicial Cooperation in the Fight Against Economic Crime
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025926 |
| Pages | 83-88 |
| Author | Elisabeth Pelsez |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Crime — Vol. 7 No. 1 — International
France: International Judicial Cooperation in the
Fight Against Economic Crime
Elisabeth Pelsez
In an interview given to a French magazine in July
1998,
the Public Prosecutor for Geneva, Bernard
Bertossa, a signatory to the Geneva Appeal, made
the following statement about the globalisation of
financial crime: 'I have to admit, I was far from
suspecting that it had become so widespread ...
each year the cases of crime which we deal with
in Geneva represent hundreds of millions of
dollars.' The journalist interviewing him asked:
'How long docs it take to trace the route of
funds which go around the world in a matter of
moments?' The Swiss magistrate replied, 'if their
path is complex enough it can take at least ten years
or so ...'
In this same article the journalist had also spoken to
Renaud van Ruymbeke, a French magistrate in
charge of important economic and financial affairs
who is also a signatory to the Geneva Appeal, and
he emphasised that 'large scale corruption is the
downside of a free market economy. If we had
asked the Mafia organisations to set up their own
economy so as to serve their own interests, they
couldn't have managed anything better than globali-
sation. Today, for these organisations, it is less risky
and more profitable to buy a bank than to try to
hold it up.'
The two magistrates reached a common conclu-
sion about how to go about remedying the situation.
According to Mr Bertossa, states should no longer
recognise the legal existence of offshore companies
for commercial and banking transactions or, accord-
ing to Renaud van Ruymbeke, 'We need to draw up
an international charter on the transparency of move-
ments of funds, by which the signatory countries
undertake not to invoke banking confidentiality in
the case of an investigation by a judge from a neigh-
bouring country ... It is not a question of regulating
exchanges, only of ensuring a minimum level of
transparency in order to neutralise the most danger-
ous networks.'
These reflections lead precisely to the heart of the
matter — 'international cooperation in the fight
against economic crime'. This paper will first discuss
the measures taken by France in order to fight the
phenomena of corruption, economic and financial
crime and fraud as well as the resources which have
been set up at international level so that France
becomes truly involved in the negotiations and the
decisions which are fighting against this sort of
crime. Secondly the author's experience as a liaison
magistrate will be used in describing the obstacles
and the progress made within the framework of
judicial cooperation in the face of economic crime.
THE FRENCH POSITION
In a speech on corruption given at a conference in
Lyon on 8th December, 1997, the French Minister
of Justice, Elisabeth Guigou, emphasised that
'we cannot just ignore the growing links between
corruption and organised crime ... corruption is
mainly used with political and administrative deci-
sion makers. It gives a less coercive way of insinua-
tion into the machinery of the State. In this respect,
the amount of corruption is a good indicator of the
size of the Mafia structure in a particular country.
The links between corruption and organised
crime can be seen today in a large number of coun-
tries contributing to the fact that this phenomenon
is an especially worrying matter."
THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
New judicial instruments
The notion of the moral responsibility of moral
persons has been introduced into French law, and
the legislative body wishes it to be possible for it to
be used in cases of corruption or similar offences.
The same thing is true for the creation of the
offence of giving unfair advantage within the frame-
work of a public tender, popularly known as the
crime of favouritism. It is possible to bring changes
for this offence without any need for supporting
evidence in the form of an agreement between the
businessman and the person responsible for the
tender and without it being necessary to establish a
precedent.
Page 83
To continue reading
Request your trial