In France, the fight against the financial crime, organized by the white-collar workers is insufficient, weakening the public accounts and social cohesion: it is, in substance, the conclusion to which lead the mps Ugo Bernalicis (France insubordinate) and Jacques Mayor (LREM) in their report on the evaluation of the fight against this type of illegal actions, presented this Thursday morning. After a premises concern the manner in which the services of the State, overwhelmed, struggling hard to thwart a crime with a more complex and massive, the elected officials make twenty-five proposals to make more effective the fight against fraudsters.
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It must be said that the basic result is scarcely encouraging. The resources deployed so far in the fight against crime, highlighted by recent scandals repeatedly as the Luxleaks, the Panama papers, and the case Cahuzac “did not address that at the tip of the iceberg”, as noted by mps, who warn about an economic issue, political and societal: “the impunity of real or alleged white-collar criminals tend to discredit the idea of justice equal for all citizens, they remember.
in recent years, this crime-faceted has grown steadily, both in terms of complexity of patterns mounted that weight to the public finances, and the number of players. More discreet than other types of illegal actions, “financial delinquency is a heterogeneous phenomenon, trend growth”: the fraud of the means of payment increased by 19% in five years, fraud, and abuse of trust of 24% over the same period, when the checks organised by the authorities against tax evasion have helped identify 6,45 billion euros in rights and penalties in 2017, compared to 4.9 billion in the previous year, an increase of 31,43% in one year. “Regardless of the sources, the trend emerged is an increase in the phenomenon,” noted the elected officials who deplore the fact, however, a lack of data on which to rely in order to measure its intensity.
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This increase is amplified by the ingenuity of offenders who demonstrate an “ability to adapt, and even anticipation, in a state of perpetual renewal”: the files are more complex, and the perpetrators rely on the technological renewal ongoing to find new prey. Internet offers the crooks a “hunting ground ideal, virtually without limit”, where they give heart to joy: phishing, hacking, data bank… The new techniques allow offenders to “muddy the waters”. Even the crypto-currencies, are considered to be too opaque, raising questions.
The State overwhelmed
in the Face of this multiplication of cases and their complexity, the services of the State seem to be overwhelmed and fail to stem the progression. The fight against these phenomena suffers from several defects, including a lack of coordination between the various ministries involved, a lack of statistics due to a definition that is too imprecise cases of financial delinquency to speak of, as well as an overall lack of resources. “One of the great challenges to the public policy of the fight against this scourge is to take into account the whole spectrum of criminal behavior and adapt to the rise of quantitative and sophistication permanent,” the report explains.
In this context, the decline in resources allocated to this battle is keenly felt. The public finances general Directorate (DGFIP) has in particular faced a decrease in headcount of 12% between 2012 and 2016, and the different agencies involved suffer at the same time under-investment, for example in their information systems, dated. The deterioration of working conditions has several harmful effects, on the short-term and long-term. Today, the ‘ chain of custody ‘écofi’ is in crisis,” the surveys are too long, the justice is too slow and recoveries are falling, because of lack of personnel.
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Thus, on average, the Court of appeal of Versailles ruled that a folder audiencé took place during a period of time average total of six years, a duration that may exceed eight years in 22% of cases. A term “excessive procedures”, which is “denounced by many actors and observers of the judicial system”. “Very complex,” the division of tasks between the different actors, lack of flexibility, and slows down the process. On the long-term, the mps are also concerned about a series of factors that could lead to a “crisis of vocations” penalizing the services dedicated to the fight against financial delinquency.
In addition, the lack of public funding has led the State to rely more on external actors, in charge of organising a chain of internal actions against the financial crime, from prevention to sanction through the detection of malicious acts. Banks, insurance companies, lawyers and accountants to form battalions in the first line: “the financial professions represent undoubtedly the major source of information to Tracfin”, the government agency responsible for the fight against money laundering, is for example the report.
To a simplification and a reduction of the device
“The public policy risk of thrombosis”, warn the two elected officials, who make so twenty-five proposals to catch up the delay taken in the fight against financial delinquency. If some are relatively simple to put in place, such as the strengthening of “the manpower of the specialised police services” or the parquet national financier, other are true brainteasers, and require profound reorganisation. The report recommends, in particular, clarifying the contours of the missions of some institutions, such as the French Agency for anti-corruption, and are strongly advised to simplify the device in place, too heavy and inefficient.
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Without these changes, as well as a true “policy inter-ministerial fight against economic and financial crime”, based for example on the creation of an inter-ministerial delegate in charge of this folder, the congestion of different channels will only get worse. “When you see thes are in play, the weakness of the means allocated in spite of the cost-effectiveness of the action of the services, we may wonder!”, exclaimed the untamed Ugo Bernalicis on Twitter, assessing the shortfall for the State “between 8 and 10 billion euros.”
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