The searches at Netflix carried out in Paris were to resume on Wednesday morning, the streaming giant being targeted by an investigation for tax fraud and concealed work, a judicial source told AFP.
These searches, which began Tuesday morning, continued into the night. At this stage, there has been no hearing, the judicial source said. “The Dutch searches have been completed since yesterday (Tuesday) evening, only the French searches are continuing,” the same source continued.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) opened a preliminary investigation in November 2022, which relates to suspicions of laundering, aggravated tax fraud and hidden work in an organized gang.
The searches are carried out “in various locations, notably at the headquarters of the Netflix companies in France”, by investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF), in the presence of members of the national financial prosecutor’s office. , the judicial source indicated on Tuesday.
The headquarters of Netflix for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, located in Amsterdam, was also searched “simultaneously by Dutch magistrates and investigators, accompanied by French magistrates and investigators”, had also detailed the same source. “We confirm that operations were carried out as part of a request for French mutual criminal assistance,” Dutch prosecutors also told AFP.
For its part, Netflix assured AFP that it was “cooperating with the authorities”. “We are cooperating with the authorities in France, where Netflix contributes significantly to the local economy, and we comply with tax laws and regulations in all countries where we operate,” a Netflix France spokesperson responded on Tuesday.
In the summer of 2023, Letter A revealed that the streaming giant was the subject of a tax audit in France, covering the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021. For this media, until 2021, the group ” minimized its taxation by declaring in the Netherlands its turnover generated in France”, its clients contracting with a Dutch company.
“Between 2019 and 2020, Netflix Services France”, which already claimed seven million subscribers in France, paid “only 981,000 euros in taxes on profits”. After the abandonment of this financial arrangement in 2021, the turnover declared in France by Netflix jumped from 47.1 million euros in 2020 to 1.2 billion euros.
Looking at the 2021 financial year, “tax agents intend to verify whether (…) Netflix has not continued to improperly minimize its profits”, explained Letter A. With more than 282 million subscribers at the end of September worldwide, Netflix achieved $9.82 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2024, for a net profit of $2.4 billion.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / awp / afp
