This is a record number.
The amount of seizures of criminal assets has almost doubled over one year in 2023, to reach 1.4 billion euros, Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti announced this Thursday.
In 2023, "it's almost 1.4 billion euros in seizures, that represents an increase of 87% compared to the previous year", he declared in front of a few journalists, during a visit to Paris in storage premises for these judicial seizures.
“In terms of confiscation”, i.e. property definitively transferred for the benefit of the State after conviction, “it is a very impressive figure, it is 175.5 million euros”, he added, emphasizing that this money came in particular to “supplement the State budget and partly the Justice budget”.
Of this amount, 110 million was paid to the general state budget, while 96 million euros were paid to compensate victims (compared to 17 million in 2022), the Chancellery said in a press release.
Objects “redistributed to internal security forces”
It is the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets (Agrasc), created in 2011, which is responsible for managing assets resulting from crime, whether real estate, cars or luxury watches or even cash or crypto-assets.
“These objects, I am thinking of vehicles for example, will be redistributed to the internal security forces”, while the buildings can be allocated “in particular to charitable associations”, indicated Éric Dupond-Moretti, welcoming a “more than virtuous circle ".
Also read: 42 million euros seized in 2023: at the Bobigny court, the sacred union to track down dirty money
“The thugs, if you hit them in the wallet it doesn’t do them any good,” he observed.
“In general, what they do is not because they are driven by humanist values, it is to make money.”
These seizures show that “crime does not pay,” he stressed.
According to the ministry's press release, 163 buildings were also sold in 2023 for 33.3 million euros, while 4,887 furnished properties were sold for an amount of 18.9 million euros.
Agrasc must develop training for law enforcement and magistrates, “by going as close as possible to the field to continue to further increase these seizures and then judicial confiscations”, declared its new general director, Vanessa. Perrée.
Goods seized by the courts of Paris, Bobigny, Créteil and Nanterre are stored on a Parisian site placed under high security.
Paintings, bicycles, computers, narcotics and even weapons: around 25,000 judicial seals are kept there each year in strong rooms, before they are destroyed, returned, or even recovered and sold by Agrasc.