The National Financial Prosecutor's Office

A specialised prosecutor's office with national jurisdiction, born of the Cahuzac affair. It negotiated McDonald's France's tax settlement in 2022.

In brief

Created by the laws of 6 December 2013 on combating tax fraud and serious economic and financial crime; began operating on 1^st February 2014.
A prosecutor's office with nationwide jurisdiction, attached to the Paris judicial court, headed by the national financial prosecutor.
Jurisdiction: offences against probity (corruption, influence peddling, favouritism, misappropriation of public funds), complex or aggravated tax fraud and its laundering, market offences (insider dealing, price manipulation) — where the cases are “highly complex” (Art. 705 CPP).
Concurrent, non-exclusive jurisdiction: local prosecutors' offices remain competent.
It is the body that negotiates and signs judicial public interest agreements in matters of probity and tax fraud.

The PNF was created in the political urgency of the Cahuzac affair, with a simple idea: financial crime by large companies requires specialised magistrates, technical assistants — tax specialists, accountants, financial analysts — and a nationwide jurisdiction free from territorial boundaries.

Its most visible tool is the CJIP. In 2022, it concluded an agreement with McDonald's France settling a dispute concerning transfer pricing: the fees paid by French restaurants to a Luxembourg entity of the group. Public interest fine: €508.5 million, plus €737 million in tax and penalties paid to the DGFiP.

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office

Sources

Where this comes up in the case file

Other glossary entries — Institutions