FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: William Julié, Amélie Beauchemin, Camille Gosson and Elena Moreno, WJ Avocats
therefore investigated by the ACPR, France’s financial regulatory authority. 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions At the French Level At the criminal level, Article 459 of the French Customs Code criminalises having “contravened or attempted to contravene the laws and regulations governing financial relations with foreign countries, either by failing to comply with reporting or repatriation obliga - tions, or by failing to observe prescribed procedures or formalities, or by failing to obtain the required authorisations or to meet the conditions attached to such authorisations”, and “contravening or attempt - ing to contravene measures restricting economic and financial relations provided for by Community regu - lations adopted pursuant to Article 75 or 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or by international treaties and agreements duly approved and ratified by France”. Under these provisions, the breaching of a sanction is a criminal offence, regardless of whether the sanction originates from the French national sanctions regime or is ratified by France – ie, originates from the EU or UN. Article 459 also provides for the criminalisation of incitement, by means of writing, propaganda or adver - tising, to commit one of the offences referred to in the foregoing, whether or not the incited offence is actually carried out. Potential penalties for breaching sanctions for natural persons include: • five years’ imprisonment; • confiscation of the corpus delicti; • confiscation of the means of transport used to commit the offence; • confiscation of property and assets that are the direct or indirect proceeds of the offence; and • a fine at least equal to, and at most twice, the amount associated with the offence or attempted offence.
Incitement to breach sanctions is punished by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of between EUR450
and EUR225,000. Legal persons risk: • dissolution;
• a permanent ban, or a ban for a maximum of five years, on directly or indirectly exercising one or more professional or social activities; • placement, for a maximum of five years, under judicial supervision; • permanent closure, or closure for a maximum of five years, of one or more of the establishments of the company used to commit the offence; • permanent exclusion from public contracts or exclusion for a maximum of five years; • a ban, either permanently or for a maximum of five years, on making a public offer of financial securi - ties or on having their financial securities admitted to trading on a regulated market; • a ban, for a maximum of five years, on issuing cheques other than those enabling the drawer to withdraw funds from the drawee or those who are certified, or on using payment cards; • publication of the decision either in the written press or by any electronic means of communica - tion to the public; • a ban, for a period of up to five years, on receiving any public aid allocated by the state, local authori - ties, their establishments or groupings, as well as on any financial aid paid by a private person entrusted with a public service mission; and • confiscations. Article 459 specifies that “where, for any reason what - soever, the objects liable to confiscation have not been seized or are not represented by the offender, or where the Minister for the Budget or his representative so requests, the Court must, in lieu of confiscation, order payment of a sum equal to the value of these objects”. At the civil and administrative level, pursuant to Article L. 561-36 et seq of the Monetary and Financial Code, any breach or circumvention by an entity subject to the supervision of the ACPR of financial sanctions set forth in Articles L. 562-1 and L. 562-3 of the same Code – or of any related obligations – may, in addition
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