What if the money was returned to the people who are being robbed in foreign bribery cases? The Grenier Avocats law firm, expert in ethical risks for French and foreign companies, wished to mark a small step forward in the fight against corruption: on 2 May, in first reading, the Senate adopted the draft law on the appropriation of foreign bribery assets.

More recently, the government has committed, through the Finance 2020 Bill, to adopt a reform allowing the restitution of assets to victims.

Let us recall the essential idea of this legislative proposal: in the current state of our law, excluding confiscations pronounced in the framework of the international mutual criminal assistance, assets confiscated by French courts in foreign bribery cases are returned to the French State budget.

The spirit of this new bill is that the proceeds of these confiscations be returned to the populations in the countries of origin, the first victims of corruption.