Cryptos: tax authorities will soon be keeping an eye on all transactions

The European Parliament has adopted its eighth version of the Administrative Cooperation Directive, or DAC8. This one aims at reducing the risk of fraud and tax evasion by requiring, starting on 1 January 2026, crypto-currency exchange platforms to provide to tax authorities information on users’ activities. > Read the article

Bullying at school: complaint lodged against TikTok for incitement to suicide, a first in France

Parents have filed a complaint – the first in France – against TikTok following the suicide of their daughter. The girl, who had been harassed at school and posted a video on the platform evoking this harassment, was offered by the social network’s “extremely powerful algorithm” a range of content on the theme of suicide and suffering. The complaint alleges “incitement to suicide”, “failure to assist a person in danger” and “propaganda or advertising of means to commit suicide”. > Read the article

Saint-Pryvé-Saint-Mesmin mayor to face trial for unlawful taking of interests

Thierry Cousin, the mayor (UDI) of Saint-Pryvé-Saint-Mesmin and vice-president of the Orléans metropolitan area, has been referred to the Orléans Judicial Court on charges of passive corruption and unlawful taking of interests. Mr. Cousin is accused of being an employee of a construction company that benefited from two public contracts awarded by the city’s mayor’s office. The trial will take place on 22 February 2024. > Read the article

Black market in tennis lessons :Paris public prosecutor opens a corruption investigation

The Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened a corruption investigation following the revelation of fraud regarding tennis lessons. Parisian stadium guards are implicated in this scandal, having accepted bribes to allow tennis instructors to give unauthorized private lessons on municipal courts. The fraud, which amounted to around 25,000 euros per month at a specific sports complex, led to the suspension of all the municipal staff involved. An investigation is currently underway for active and passive corruption, misappropriation of public funds and illegal practice of the profession of tennis instructor, targeting both municipal agents and stadium guards. > Read the article

Argentina: Vice-President Cristina Kirchner still in the crosshairs of the law

Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s former president (2007-2015) and current vice-president, is the subject of two separate criminal proceedings that were reopened this week. The Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation overturned two decisions from October and November 2021 that dismissed the prosecution against Mrs. Kirchner in two separate cases. The first related to a charge of obstruction of an investigation into a fatal attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish mutual fund in 1994. The second relates to acts of corruption. Mrs. Kirchner was first sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment in 2022 for fraud and corruption, and is currently involved in half a dozen criminal proceedings. > Read the article

With Wide-Ranging New Sanctions, Treasury Targets Russian Military-Linked Elites and Industrial Base

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) unveiled a new series of 100 sanctions targeted toward Russian elites, financial institutions, technology suppliers along with the designation by the Department of State of more than 70 persons. These sanctions focus on persons benefiting from, supporting, and sustaining from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. > Read the article