criminal seizures on the verge of breaking a record by exceeding one billion euros for the first time

A record which is partly explained by a major tax fraud case where 461 million euros of real estate were seized.

The amount of assets seized and confiscated by French justice is on the verge of exceeding, for the first time, one billion euros in 2023, France Inter learned on Tuesday December 26 from the Asset Management and Recovery Agency seized and confiscated (Agrasc). Please note that this figure is not final, particularly because the year is not yet over. In 2022, the amount reached 771 million euros.

This record is partly explained by a large case: 461 million euros of real estate seized in a tax fraud case. It is also explained by the “service provider” policy of Agrasc, which trains and helps police officers, magistrates and court clerks to complete their investigations with a seizure-confiscation component.

Buildings, cars and… drones seized

This agency, placed under the dual supervision of the Ministries of Justice and Finance, centralizes and manages the sums seized in the context of criminal proceedings, it also manages the property entrusted to it and also ensures the payment of the proceeds of the sale. The sums of money collected are allocated to the state budget, investigation services and even associations. Regarding the goods seized, they can be very diverse: buildings, cars, luxury watches, or even – and this is a first – drones confiscated and handed over to the police last week.

On December 18, the Agency organized in front of the press the handover of 142 drones used illegally. The latter were seized during prohibited overflights or deliveries to prisons. They were confiscated and handed over to the Paris police. These drones will be used by police officers during demonstrations, fires or traffic accidents.

For Virginie Gentile, general secretary and interim director of Agrasc, the seizure and confiscation of property is the most painful punishment for a trafficker: “We have systematic appeals even before the Court of Cassation to be able to recover the property, which is not the case with regard to the prison sentence, since it is experienced as a professional risk. And that is true that when leaving prison, the offender will find neither his house, nor his swimming pool, nor his Porsche Cayenne nor his Rolex”.

Agrasc, created in 2011, has grown from around forty agents to more than 80 over the last three years. This year it inaugurated three new regional branches in Bordeaux, Nancy and Fort-de-France.