#White collar crime
The AMF welcomes initial criminal rulings in a case involving insider trading networks.
On 13 April 2026, the Paris Criminal Court convicted three individuals for insider dealing and complicity in insider dealing in connection with the use of inside information relating to the public takeover bid that the Air Liquide group intended to launch on Airgas in 2015. The Court imposed sentences of up to three years’ imprisonment and fines of up to €30 million. The offences were uncovered following investigations conducted by the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers – AMF) into suspicious transactions, which led to the identification of exchanges concerning the confidential transaction. This decision constitutes one of the first criminal convictions handed down in a case involving an insider trading networks. The AMF, acting as a civil party, contributed to the proceedings by providing its technical expertise to the judicial authorities. The decision remains subject to appeal. > Read the article.
“Scrapping the Convention judiciaire d’intérêt public would undermine France’s credibility on the international stage”
On 11 April 2026, Vincent Filhol, partner at Navacelle, and Nicola Bonucci, vice-president of the French Society for International Law, spoke out, in an opinion pieced published in Le Monde, against the proposed abolition of the Convention judiciaire d’intérêt public (CJIP) as part of the draft bill on combating social and tax fraud. They present this mechanism as a central tool of business criminal law, combining efficiency and procedural speed, and constituting a genuine international asset for France, as illustrated in an emblematic manner by the CJIP concluded with Airbus in January 2020, which resulted in the payment of a fine exceeding two billion euros and the implementation of compliance audits supervised by the French Anti‑Corruption Agency. >Read the article.
Investigators denied access to the Élysée for a search: what we know
On 14 April 2026, magistrates and officers from the Parquet national financier (PNF) went to the Élysée Palace to carry out searches as part of an investigation into alleged favoritism, corruption and influence peddling. The investigation concerns the repeated awarding, over a period of 22 years of Panthéon induction ceremonies to the company Shortcut Events. Access to the Élysée Palace was denied to the investigators, although searches were conducted at other locations, including private residences, the National Monuments Center, and the company’s offices. The Élysée Palace stated that documents unrelated to the functions of the President of the Republic would be provided upon request. The investigators and magistrates were specifically met with the invocation of Article 67 of the Constitution, which provides for the inviolability of the presidential premises and the impossibility of requiring the President to give testimony or be subject to criminal proceedings. > Read the article.
#Litigation and International investigation
The company Lafarge found guilty of financing terrorist groups in Syria; its former CEO Bruno Lafont sentenced to six years in prison
On 13 April 2026, the Paris Criminal Court found the Lafarge group and eight of its former executives guilty of financing terrorist groups in Syria between 2013 and 2014. Former CEO, Bruno Lafont, was sentenced to six years of imprisonment with immediate incarceration. According to the judgment, the company, now part of the Swiss group Holcim, paid nearly €5.6 million to several jihadist organizations, including the Islamic State. This “commercial partnership” notably facilitated the preparation of terrorist attacks, including those carried out in France in January 2015. The proceedings concerned payments made by the Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria to maintain operations at a cement plant located in Jalabiya, in the north of the country. > Read the article.
#Arbitration and Mediation
ICCA Congress kicks off in Madrid
From 12 to 15 April 2026, the 27th Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) was held in Madrid, bringing together 1,300 participants and opening with an official ceremony at the Teatro Real. Ahead of the event, the ICCA’s governing board announced that Cape Town would host the 29th Congress in 2030, marking the second time the Congress will be held in Africa. Discussions then began with interventions centered on the theme “International Arbitration – Global, Local or Both?”, as well as a speech by the Secretary‑General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the expansion of the institution’s activities beyond The Hague. During the Congress, the Guillermo Aguilar‑Álvarez Memorial Prize was awarded to Jonathan Brosseau for his work on the applicable ethical framework in commercial and investment arbitration. The next ICCA Congress will take place in San Francisco in May 2028. >Read the article.
