#Banking Criminal Law:
« Spoofing » bank scam: BNP definitively ordered to reimburse a victim
In view of the increase in attempted bank fraud, the French Supreme Court recently reminded that “a person who is deceived by a bogus bank advisor over the telephone cannot be accused of gross negligence” and that banks are obliged to reimburse fraudulent transfers. This press release illustrates a judgment delivered by the Versailles Court of Appeal on 28 March 2023 concerning the refusal of BNP Paribas to reimburse a customer who had been the victim of fraud by a bogus advisor. The court recalled that it is up to the bank to prove that its customer was grossly negligent in order to refuse to reimburse the sums. In this case, the court considered that, given the manoeuvres used by the bogus adviser, the client’s gross negligence had not been proven. > Read article
#Ethics and Compliance:
Publication of ESMA’s First Report on Sanctions: AMF Leads European Authorities in Sanctions Imposed
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) report on sanctions in financial regulation shows that the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) is the European regulator with the highest amount of sanctions imposed in 2023, at 35.38 million euros, mainly for breaches of the Market Abuse Regulation. As a result of the close cooperation between the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and the AMF and the implementation of the referral procedure, sanctions totaling 14 million euros were also imposed for insider trading and unlawful disclosure of inside information.
The ESMA report also points out that, at the European Union level, 976 sanctions and administrative measures were imposed in 2023, for a total amount of more than 71 million euros. The report concludes that there is a lack of consistency in the way national authorities exercise their sanctioning powers. > Read article
#Criminal tax law:
Budget 2025: the tax authorities’ new weapons to counter crypto tax fraud
The 2025 Finance Bill will tighten controls on cryptocurrency transactions to combat tax fraud. From 2026, under European Directive DAC 8 (Directive 2023/2226), exchange platforms will have to automatically transmit their users’ data to the tax authorities. The aim is to clarify financial flows and make it easier to detect fraud and money laundering in a sector that has been difficult to monitor. Investors will be required to declare their income accurately, while the tax authorities will be able to compare these declarations with the information received from the platforms, thereby facilitating tax adjustment procedures. This reform is an important step towards stricter regulation of digital assets. > Read article
#Export control & International sanctions:
How Russians circumvent western oil sanctions with shell companies, ghost ships and hidden intermediaries
Le Monde reveals the existence of a vast system for circumventing oil sanctions against Russia, orchestrated by the trader Etibar Eyyub and the company Coral Energy. Using a complex network of front companies and “ghost ships”, Coral Energy is said to have managed to transport Russian oil onto world markets despite Western sanctions, thanks in particular to financing from major European companies such as Société Générale and TotalEnergies. The system is based on two divisions, the “blue teams” and the “red teams”: the former carry out visible transactions with Western banks and insurance companies, while the latter conceal the Russian origin of the oil by circumventing customs controls, in particular through transfers at sea. > Read article
