The FCPA Blog | By: Simon Taylor & Yousr Khalil | September 27, 2017:
In December 2016, France enacted an anti-corruption law known as Sapin II. The law was named after Michel Sapin, the then Minister of Finance, who said when presenting the bill: “In the fight against corruption, France cannot just satisfy itself with the existing situation.”
The shortcomings of pre-Sapin II French law were plain to see. The old law attracted more than a little criticism and resulted in some notable failures to secure convictions in seemingly clear cases.
Limited extra-territorial reach, antiquated procedural bars to prosecutions, and the absence of an effective system for settling without trial cases of corporate corruption contributed to a situation where overseas enforcement agencies (notable DOJ and SEC) successfully claimed jurisdictional primacy over the wrong-doing of French companies and financial institutions overseas.
Settlements and disgorgements from French companies to overseas regulators (again, primarily the United States) ran into billions of dollars.
Sapin II – formally titled the “Law Regarding Transparency, the Fight Against Corruption and the Modernization of Economic Life” – brings French laws into alignment with those existing in countries such as the United States and UK.
This will now enable French authorities to exert jurisdictional claims in cases of overseas corruption with a French connection and, of course, to participate in discussions over where any penalties or disgorgements should be paid.
Beyond this shift in the geopolitics of multi-jurisdictional corporate corruption cases, Sapin II will also have implications for any internal investigations into suspected corporate bribery.
The extra-territorial element to Sapin II expands jurisdiction to the conduct of all French citizens, wherever in the world they may work or reside, and to persons of any nationality resident in France. For corporations, French jurisdiction can now be asserted over legal entities with a footprint in France, wherever else in the world it might operate.
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