Laundering of aggravated tax evasion
It is a great classic in the life of multinationals and the national financial prosecutor's office.
Thursday, the latter recalled that a
“preliminary investigation was opened on March 31, 2022, on the count of aggravated money laundering of aggravated tax evasion targeting the McKinsey group and in particular the companies McKinsey & Company Inc. France and McKinsey & CompanyInc.SAS”
.
This was the immediate effect of the explosive Senate report on "
the growing influence of private consulting firms on public policy ".
“, published on March 16, 2022, and which revealed that McKinsey had not paid tax between 2011 and 2020. For the year 2020 alone, McKinsey would have received 18 million euros in remuneration from the State for missions relating in particular to the Covid-19 pandemic, for an overall turnover of 329 million euros in France.
Like McDonald's or Google before it, McKinsey would therefore have practiced the offshore outsourcing of profits, in this case to the State of Delaware.
This “brand royalty” is not the prerogative of large American companies.
It is, for example, widely used in the world of luxury.
In this area, the law and its case law are very complex.
These cases now end in a legal agreement of public interest of good quality, negotiated between polite but determined people.
These transactions, which ultimately amount to paying the tax, exceeded one billion euros for McDonald's on June 17, and reached 500 million euros for Google in 2019.
Read alsoSuspicions of tax optimization: ongoing search at the French headquarters of the American firm McKinsey
For the defendants, they have the virtue of being discreet and rapid since one does not go through the examining magistrate and court box.
They also make it possible to bail out the coffers of the State.
This could be what McKinsey is currently negotiating with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office.
Non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts and reduction of accounting elements
The case is complex, and politically so radioactive, that the national financial prosecutor's office hastened to open, on October 20, 2022, a judicial investigation entrusted to a triumvirate of investigating judges coordinated by the master of the genre, the magistrate Serge Tournaire.
The latter distinguished himself in the Sarkozy and Fillon cases.
He is also on the front line in the investigation into the conditions for the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar.
In the McKinsey case, the suspicions relate to both the 2017 and 2022
campaigns. political funding which still has until December 24 to deliver its blank check
to the candidates”, we remark on the side of the Transparency association.
Even if the prosecution specifies that this opening follows reports and complaints from elected officials and associations, it should be remembered that a first search took place in May 2022, at McKinsey's headquarters in the wake of the money laundering suspicions of aggravated tax evasion.
It took a few months of painstaking work for the magistrates of the national financial prosecutor's office to go through the data and emails contained in the computers of the consulting company and its employees.
In 2017, it was the "MacronLeaks" who had already revealed the closeness between Emmanuel Macron and the caciques of the consulting company.
Read alsoRelations between the State and consulting firms: six questions to disentangle the true from the false
However, since the political scandals of the 1990s, the border between companies and electoral campaigns has been legally completely watertight.
In this case, justice would suspect the circumvention of this total ban.
Starting with the
pro bono
participation - without remuneration - of these employees of the American consulting firm in these campaigns, in particular via strategic committees.
If the latter participated en masse during their working time and in a coordinated way, this could be considered as hidden financing and therefore an undue overrun of campaign accounts.
Same consequence if, as individuals, employees or associates of McKinsey have financed the campaign up to 7,500 euros and it is attested that they have done so in a massive and coordinated way.
“
In both cases, En Marche!
then Renaissance and finally Emmanuel Macron would be suspected of having played with the margins of electoral law
”, underlines a fine jurist who estimates that, this week, Claude Guéant was sentenced to six months in prison for less than that.
To date, of course, the President of the Republic enjoys total immunity.
“
But in four years, that will no longer be the case.
But it's time for justice
, ”notes a connoisseur of the file.
Favoritism and concealment of favoritism
These two offenses could be the consequence of McKinsey's participation in the first presidential campaign of 2017 and the old links contracted - from 2008 - between the President of the Republic and the consulting company.
As with violations of the electoral code, a judicial investigation was also opened on October 21, 2022 following complaints and reports from elected officials and associations.
“
In the old world, it was called an elevator return.
In the new, it is simply forbidden.
All the work of the investigating judges will therefore consist in evaluating whether the legislation concerning calls for tenders and the awarding of public contracts has been respected or, on the contrary, misguided.
In turn, on October 26, three CGT subsidiaries filed a complaint against X, in particular for embezzlement of public funds, influence peddling, illegal taking of interests, favouritism, breach of trust, counterfeiting and criminal association.
The list is quite long…
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