France’s anti-money laundering authority has gone public with suspicions that foreigners are using investments in French vineyards to clean dirty money. The 2012 annual report form the Traitement du renseignement et action contre les circuits financiers clandestins (Tracfin), part of the Finance Ministry, published earlier this month, calls for increased vigilance in selling vineyards to foreign investors, singling out Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian buyers. But the report cautions that most foreign investors are legitimate.
“Most of the time there is no problem. But after an analysis—and we have access to customs, the police and we cooperate with other services around the world—if after an investigation, there is a problem, we give the case to the procureur of the republic [a prosecutor] in the region concerned,” a Tracfin spokesperson told Wine Spectator.
Tracfin would not reveal how many cases have been passed to prosecutors, but confirmed that money laundering through the wine trade was a definite problem. “Wine is a very attractive sector,” said the spokesperson.
Heather Lowe, legal counsel and director of government affairs at Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization that monitors money laundering, said she wasn’t surprised. “What a great investment. It has a certain patina, the kind of thing wealthy people invest in, and an air of intellectualism and high society. And the price [for the wine] is not fixed. For trade-based money laundering, you can overvalue or undervalue the wine.” Money launderers often use false invoices to move cash illicitly.
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Link to the Tracfin Annul Report (in French): click here