Combating money laundering and terrorist financing involves participating in a system for gathering information to detect risks and fraudulent behaviour.
To achieve this, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has drawn up forty recommendations, which the Member States have undertaken to comply with.
The European Union then introduced European directives to transform these recommendations into European standards. Among the most recent, the 5th Directive, still requires increased vigilance and a systematic risk assessment by all those involved in the art market.
At national level, the French Treasury is responsible for transposing the European legal framework into the national LCB-FT legal framework .
When a risk is detected, art professionals must turn to TRACFIN, the financial intelligence unit. Its role is to receive reports from the private sector and disseminate information on suspected money laundering or terrorist financing operations to the investigating authorities, notably the DGSE and the DGSI.
To ensure that European directives are properly applied, officials from the General Directorate of Customs and Excise inspect art professionals. If the Customs inspectors identify any failings in the application of the law, the matter will be referred to the Commission Nationale des Sanctions (CNS), which will be responsible for imposing penalties in accordance with article L. 561-38 of the Monetary and Financial Code.
