Fraud Lawyer in Paris

What counts as fraud or breach of trust under French law?

French criminal law has no single offence called fraud. The first task in any file is to identify which one the prosecutor has in mind, because the elements to be proved, the penalties and the defence follow from that choice. The two that account for most of the economic cases heard in Paris are escroquerie, usually translated as fraud, and abus de confiance, breach of trust.

Escroquerie is defined by article 313-1 of the Penal Code as the act of deceiving a natural or legal person, by the use of a false name or a false capacity, by the misuse of a genuine capacity or by fraudulent manoeuvres, and of thereby leading that person, to their own detriment or that of a third party, to hand over funds, valuables or any property, to provide a service or to consent to a document creating an obligation or a discharge. The deception has to come first and cause the handing over: a simple lie, without a manoeuvre or a false capacity, is not enough, and that distinction is where many defences begin. The penalty is five years of imprisonment and a 375,000 euro fine, and the attempt is punished in the same way (article 313-3).

Abus de confiance, under article 314-1, is the misappropriation, to the detriment of another, of funds, valuables or any property that were handed over voluntarily and accepted on condition that they be returned, represented or used for a specified purpose. There is no deception at the outset: the money or the goods were entrusted, and the offence lies in what was done with them afterwards. A manager who uses client deposits for personal expenses, an agent who keeps sums collected for a principal, an employee who diverts funds from an account he administers: these are typical breach of trust files. Since the law of 24 December 2020 the penalty is the same as for fraud, five years and 375,000 euros.

Both offences have aggravated forms. Fraud rises to seven years and 750,000 euros in the cases listed by article 313-2, for example a particularly vulnerable victim, a public appeal for funds, a false claim to act for a public authority, or a fraud against a public body or a social security body to obtain an undue benefit, and to ten years and 1,000,000 euros when committed by an organised group. Breach of trust rises to seven years and 750,000 euros for an organised group (article 314-1-1) or in the situations of article 314-2, and to ten years and 1,500,000 euros for court-appointed administrators and public officers (article 314-3). These are the penalties in force in 2026, checked against the official text on 2 October 2026.

One change deserves a paragraph of its own. Since Law No. 2026-534 of 25 June 2026, organised fraud committed against a public body, a social security body or a public service organisation, to obtain an allowance, a benefit, a payment or an undue advantage, is no longer a délit but a crime, punished by fifteen years of criminal imprisonment and a 1,000,000 euro fine. It is tried by a criminal court and listed among the organised crime offences of article 706-73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which opens the special investigation regime described below. Organised fraud against a company or an individual remains a délit punished by ten years. The French version of this page, the avocat escroquerie Paris page, sets out the same rules in French.

What happens after a summons or an arrest for fraud in Paris?

Fraud investigations rarely begin with a dawn arrest. They usually begin with a complaint, months of bank enquiries, then a summons. The letter says whether you are expected for an audition libre, a voluntary interview you may leave at any time, or for garde à vue (police custody). In Paris, economic cases are handled by the specialised units of the judicial police, among them the BRDA, the brigade for sophisticated fraud, and by the financial sections of the Paris prosecutor's office. Whichever unit sends the summons, the firm's advice is the same: do not attend alone and do not improvise an account of facts that are often years old and documented in a file you have not seen.

Police custody for fraud lasts up to 24 hours and can be extended once, to 48 hours, on the written and reasoned authorisation of the prosecutor (article 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). Your rights must be notified in a language you understand, through an interpreter where necessary (article 63-1), and a foreign national can ask for their consular authorities to be informed, a call the investigators must make within three hours except in insurmountable circumstances (article 63-2). For the crime of organised fraud against a public body created in 2026, the organised crime regime applies: custody can be extended by two further periods of 24 hours, up to 96 hours in total, on the decision of a judge (article 706-88). How to appoint the firm from abroad, and what happens in the first hour, is explained on the police custody lawyer page.

At the end of custody or of the interview, the prosecutor chooses the route. For a file that is clear and acknowledged, the prosecutor may propose the comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité, the French guilty plea, which article 495-7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure opens to fraud and breach of trust; the firm's page on the CRPC procedure explains how the proposed sentence is negotiated and approved. For a contested or complex file, the prosecutor either issues a summons before the tribunal correctionnel or refers the case to a juge d'instruction (investigating judge), who places the person under formal investigation, orders expert accounting reports and rules on judicial supervision. That judicial investigation commonly lasts two or three years in financial cases.

Throughout, the financial side of the case runs in parallel. Criminal seizures can be ordered on bank accounts, real estate and company assets from the investigation stage onwards, to secure a future confiscation. For a client who lives abroad or runs a business from Paris, these measures are often the most pressing problem; the firm challenges their lawfulness and their scope before the judge.

How is a defence built in a fraud or breach of trust case?

A fraud file is a paper file. It is won or lost on the documents: contracts, emails, bank statements, accounting entries, the chronology of who knew what and when. The first line of defence is the classification itself. Many files presented as fraud are in reality commercial disputes that have turned sour, a failed investment, a partner who feels cheated, a contract that was never performed. A civil breach is not a criminal offence: without fraudulent manoeuvres that preceded and caused the handing over, or without a misappropriation of what was entrusted, there is no escroquerie and no abus de confiance. The defence shows the court, document by document, where the file fails to meet the definition of articles 313-1 and 314-1.

The second line is intent. Both offences require that the person knew what they were doing. A director who signed on the advice of accountants, an intermediary who passed on funds in good faith: the question of personal knowledge is central and it is answered by the documents and the witnesses. The third line is time. With facts that go back a decade, the limitation rules of articles 8 and 9-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, six years from the facts or, for a concealed offence, from their discovery within a twelve year ceiling, are examined in every file and sometimes end the prosecution.

Maître Bruguière holds a Master's degree in financial criminal law (Cergy-Pontoise / ESSEC) and handles economic and financial cases regularly. The firm's breach of trust case study describes, in anonymised form, how a professional misappropriation file was defended. Every case is different and no outcome can be promised; what the example shows is the method. For an English-speaking client the firm also reviews the procedure itself: statements taken without a proper interpreter, or rights notified in a language the person did not understand, are arguments raised before the investigating judge or the court. The broader field is described on the firm's business criminal law page.

Victims: how do you file a complaint and recover your money in Paris?

Much of the firm's fraud work is on the other side of the table. Investment scams, fake bank advisers, rental deposit frauds, business partners who vanish with the funds: victims who live abroad or do not speak French face the same procedure and the same deadlines as anyone else. The complaint can be filed at any police station in Paris, which is required to record it even if it is not territorially competent (article 15-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), or sent directly to the prosecutor of the tribunal judiciaire de Paris. Keep every message, transfer reference and document: the strength of a fraud complaint lies in its documents.

If the prosecutor has not acted within three months of the complaint, or has informed you that no prosecution will follow, you can file a complaint with civil party status before an investigating judge, which forces the opening of a judicial investigation (article 85 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). A for-profit company filing such a complaint must attach its balance sheet and profit and loss account, as the same article requires. At the hearing, the victim joins the proceedings as partie civile (civil party) and claims restitution of the sums handed over and damages for every head of loss. The French mechanisms for victims are set out in French on the firm's page on victims and civil parties.

Time matters twice. The prosecution has six years from the facts (article 8), and for a fraud that was concealed the period only starts on discovery, within a ceiling of twelve years (article 9-1). Recovery matters even more: the firm asks the investigators and the judge for seizures on the accounts and assets of the person under investigation as early as possible, because a judgment years later is worth little if the funds have gone. The firm prepares each step with you in English and represents you in French before the court.

Which court tries fraud cases in Paris?

Fraud and breach of trust are délits, tried by the tribunal correctionnel of the tribunal judiciaire, in Paris at Porte de Clichy, where economic cases are heard by specialised chambers. The hearing is public, the judgment can be appealed within ten days of its pronouncement (article 498 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), and the civil party's claims are decided by the same court. The crime of organised fraud against a public body, created in 2026, is tried by a criminal court; the firm's page on the assize court and criminal court describes how those courts sit.

Maître Bruguière appears before the Paris courts and before those of the surrounding departments, Bobigny, Créteil, Nanterre, Évry, Versailles, Meaux and Pontoise, for the defence and for civil parties. The firm receives its clients in English at its office in the 7th arrondissement and pleads in French before the court, with an interpreter provided for the client where the law requires it.