The Council of State is a blow to the law Sapin 2 AML – Le Figaro

Michel Sapin this Wednesday its law on transparency of economic life. Finance Minister waives introduce there the possibility of a plea bargain for business in its new anti-corruption arsenal, the Council of State retoqué with this device.

Protection of whistleblowers, lobbies supervision, corporate governance … Bill against corruption and transparency in economic life, Michel Sapin this Wednesday by the Cabinet, was to enable France to catch up in the fight against money laundering and corruption. For the Hexagon is only 23rd in the latest “Corruption Perceptions Index” prepared by Transparency International … While most of what was planned well appear in the text presented by the finance minister, the measure most emblematic missed. Thursday night, the State Council retoqué the “plea bargain” of the bill. The Government therefore submit “to Parliament a text that does not contain this device,” says Michel Sapin Le Journal du Dimanche .

To recognize his wrongs and fined

This “netting agreement public interest” should have allowed companies implicated in corruption cases to avoid a criminal conviction, recognizing their mistakes and paying a fine – which could reach up to 30% of their average turnover on the last three years. On Thursday, a group of organizations – NGOs like Oxfam France and such unions Solidaires Public Finance or the Union of Magistrates – had called for the removal of this device project. These organizations felt that the proposed measure was “a step towards a lack of responsibility of legal persons for acts of corruption and impunity in fact, against the current international and national initiatives.”

“We see if parliamentarians want to take the subject, “said Michel Sapin to JDD . For the rest, the legislative arsenal includes the creation of a struggle against corruption agency, sanctions for officers committing bribery abroad, a special status for “whistleblowers” (which the State Council works) or new ethical rules on transparency and gifts lobbies …

the text presented Wednesday will also include measures that were originally included in the Act Noah Emmanuel Macron. Among them, particularly, clarifying the professional qualifications required (in hairdressing, construction, aesthetics …). micro-enterprise status (formerly auto-entrepreneur) will also be adapted: Macron pushed tripling thresholds, Sapin did not want it. Finally, a micro-entrepreneur could keep this status for a few more years, provided it does not exceed doubling the threshold. The text will also, via an order to establish that the Minister of Economy called a “pension fund to the French.” In flexibilising prudential rules, the idea is to move towards business and the equity part of the 150 billion euros of outstanding fund the SERP pension companies, managed by insurers.