“The national financial prosecutor’s office does not play politics,” maintains its boss Jean-François Bohnert

His words are rare. “Our job is to track down economic and financial delinquency where it is found,” responds the boss of the PNF to the frequent attacks carried out against his institution. “I understand that our activity could be disruptive.”

“The national financial prosecutor’s office does not play politics”, supports Wednesday May 22 on franceinfo Jean-François Bohnert, financial public prosecutor. Since its creation ten years ago, the PNF has been the subject of strong criticism, sometimes from political figures.

His boss defends himself on franceinfo, ensuring that the “compass” of the PNF magistrates remains “the penal code, the application of the rule of law”.

franceinfo: Since its creation ten years ago, your institution has regularly been the subject of violent attacks. Is this a sign that the PNF is fully playing its role? ?

Jean-François Bohnert : Somehow. We do not seek to please or displease, but it is certain that our activity can be disturbing. The aim of a national financial prosecutor’s office is to track down economic and financial delinquency where it is found. The work of the PNF is meticulous, stubborn work and we get things done.

In ten years, you have brought in twelve billion euros to the State through fines and damages. Where are these billions of euros going?

They supplement the general state budget. We do not receive a percentage from the activity. There is no performance bonus at the national financial prosecutor’s office. The state budget is replenished quite simply because the offenses committed require a sanction and this sanction is the fine and confiscations, which come back to the level of the state budget.

You sort of negotiate with companies that want to avoid going to trial. These are called public interest judicial conventions. On what criteria do you decide?

The first criterion is the good faith of the company, the good faith of the legal entity. If she is ready to discuss with us, to facilitate the investigative work through cooperation, then we are ready to consider a public interest judicial agreement at the end of the process. We measure and evaluate this cooperative work. We know how to trust the person in front of us, but trust never excludes control and for that there are always parallel investigations.

Do reductions in police force have an impact on the PNF?

At the moment, we have signals that seem to point in that direction. For my part, I remain very cautious. France is being monitored on this issue. The OECD is looking very closely at the major trends that are emerging along the continuum of the fight against economic and financial delinquency. Recently, the national conference of public prosecutors spoke out on the issue, sending out warning signals. At the PNF, we recorded some refusals of referrals, the decision of which was not explained.

“We are still waiting to stabilize our diagnosis, but we are worried about the line that is involved.”

Jean-François Bohnert, financial public prosecutor

at franceinfo

We can think that with constant means, there will be repercussions.

A criticism very often addressed to the magistrates of the national financial prosecutor’s office, that of playing politics.

The PNF does not do politics. [Nos décisions] may have political consequences, but that is not our compass. Our compass is the penal code, the application of the rule of law. The judicial calendar is difficult [juxtaposable] with the political calendar. What we do is scrutinize and try to avoid manipulation. To try to avoid this risk, [il faut] allow investigations to have their own rhythm. What is important for us is to always, in our decisions, precede decision-making and criminal guidance with a careful analysis which always takes time. We never make decisions on the spot, because they are technical decisions. It is necessary to take a certain number of guarantees in the technical and legal fields before getting started.

Among the sensitive cases that the PNF deals with, there is that which has led to the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati being indicted since 2021, in particular for corruption and passive influence peddling. In this case, do you have in the back of your mind the municipal election of 2026 and the possible consequences on his candidacy in Paris?

These are factors that we have in mind. But to say that we take them into account would already mean that we integrate them completely. This is not possible materially, technically and legally. Afterwards, in our decision-making chain, these are factors that are present.