Public aid, cryptoassets, maritime freight… The government wants to better monitor several sectors, but also improve recovery.
Thomas Cazenave in Paris, March 27, 2024. (AFP / THOMAS SAMSON)
A year after the anti-fraud plan of his predecessor Gabriel Attal, the Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, displays his desire to “continue the offensive”. The government will present a bill to Parliament this fall, with new measures to combat fraud, he indicated in an interview with
Echoes
Thursday 2nd of May.
Public aid fraud is particularly targeted, in particular MaPrimeRénov (to carry out energy renovation work in one’s home), but also apprenticeship aid and the personal training account (CPF).
In all, envelopes bringing together 100 billion euros of public money.
However, for MaPrimeRénov for example, the minister indicated having received
“reports from Tracfin
(the intelligence service responsible for fighting against clandestine financial circuits, editor’s note) for around 400 million euros”. The Ministry of the Economy intends to put in place various measures, in particular to suspend the payment of aid after a report from Tracfin In 2023, only 10 million euros unduly collected have been recovered, according to
The echoes
. The Ministry of the Economy is particularly concerned about the growing involvement of
criminal networks which specialize in the misappropriation of public aid.
Improve fraud recovery
Bercy also wants to tighten controls linked to the holding of cryptoassets.
“The ECB estimates that 5 million French people use cryptoassets and there are only 150,000 declarations
at the General Directorate of Public Finances. When we compare these two figures, there is obviously a part that escapes us,” underlined Thomas Cazenave.
Another point of attention is sea freight. Bercy thus wishes to put in place for shipping companies “a system equivalent to the air PNR”, that is to say the passenger file, which collects information from air passengers. This time it would be
collect goods data, in order to facilitate the role of customs.
Furthermore, the government wants to improve the recovery of fraud, and to do this in particular intends to slow down universal transfers of assets (TUP, the dissolution of a company). These TUPs are widely used by scammers, since they allow a company to disappear before the State – or other creditors – can recover its dues.
The minister also wishes
legalize the seizure of assets of people held in police custody
in order to enable the recovery of criminal fixed fines.
