Fight against money laundering: Saint-Tropez real estate agencies inspected

Investigators thus intervened "unexpectedly over three days at 13 real estate agencies in the Saint-Tropez region" (Var) last March, the DGCCRF detailed in a press release.

The audits of the agents focused on the implementation within these agencies of risk assessment, verification and management measures "to which real estate professionals are subject in order to identify clients and detect risky transactions".

The officers also checked the measures implemented to detect "transactions involving property affected by the freezing of assets, particularly in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions adopted at European level."

According to initial findings, the fraud prevention service "will be required to initiate, for the majority of operators inspected, depending on the seriousness and nature of the breaches noted (...) requests for compliance" and "referrals to the national sanctions commission".

This is not the first operation of this kind, as several have already been conducted in the south of France, as well as in Savoie, on Saint-Barthélemy (an island in the Antilles popular with wealthy individuals) and in the Paris region, adds the DGCCRF.

As part of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, real estate agencies must comply with several obligations prior to transactions: they must therefore put in place procedures to identify sellers and buyers, and active beneficiaries when they are legal entities, the fraud prevention department points out.

Agencies must also train their employees on these issues, report to Tracfin any transactions they suspect of being criminal, apply asset freezing measures and report any suspicion of misappropriation to the General Directorate of the Treasury.

Tracfin is the French intelligence service responsible for combating economic and financial crime.