The Elite’s Fear: Inside the High-Stakes World of OCLCIFF, France’s Anti-Corruption Police

It is the elevator that all the powerful of the country fear to take, captains of industry as well as politicians. The one that leads to the 9th floor of the National Directorate of the Judicial Police, in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), in the charmless offices and under construction of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses ( OCLCIFF). Vincent Bolloré, for the activities of his group in Africa, or the Fillon spouses, for the fictitious jobs of Madame in the service of Monsieur, were entitled to a view of the Pablo-Picasso estate. Nicolas Sarkozy has almost become a regular, he who was heard again in June as part of the investigation into the real false retraction of Ziad Takieddine.

As its somewhat barbaric acronym indicates, this office born in the wake of the Cahuzac scandal deals with the high end of the spectrum of financial crime, that committed by the elites. It is the armed wing of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). Eighty investigators – mostly police officers, but also judicial tax officers from Bercy – have the difficult task of tackling offenses that are occult in nature. “All crime is financial and all financial crime is organised”, summarizes the divisional commissioner Guillaume Hézard, the head of the office, insisting on this particularity that 80% of the some 230 files in his portfolio have an international aspect.

“It is also about the confidence of citizens in their leaders”

Within an institution where the flag culture reigns supreme and the PJ sector is in crisis, OCLCIFF investigators offer a unique profile. “I did not join the police saying to myself: You will be a financial investigator. But curiosity and my desire to understand the legal and financial concepts that structure society pushed me into this branch, explains Commissioner Hézard. And then, I want the game to be played fairly by everyone, including the powerful. There is a tendency to put this crime into perspective because, unlike crime on the public highway, its victims are disembodied. But society as a whole suffers. It is also about the confidence of citizens in their leaders. »

The boss admits difficulties in recruiting candidates, no doubt put off by the technicality of the position: of the 98 theoretical positions in the office, only 80 are filled. On average, it takes four to five years of practice to become fully independent.

The work of an inspector in this division of the PJ (here, in 2017) requires the police to be very rigorous and have solid notions of accounting.

Divisional Commander Pascal Fontenille is one of the long-time converts. After a BTS accounting and a first experience in an SME, this 57-year-old investigator did not imagine peeling the Airbus contracts tainted with suspicions of corruption when he passed the inspector competition. “Like in the movies, I wanted to arrest thieves,” says the current head of the central anti-corruption section. But a pre-internship in a financial service and a mixed passage in a group of narcotics oriented him towards this field where he is proud to “enforce the republican pact”. Its immediate supervisor, divisional commissioner Alexis Durand, emphasizes the importance of teamwork.

But don’t tell them they’re not cops. “It is not because we know how to read a balance sheet that we forget the heart of our job: to seek evidence and arrest suspects”, warns Guillaume Hézard. Like any PJ service, the office makes extensive use of special investigation techniques: tapping, infiltration, sound systems, etc.

Sarkozy’s hearing, “a highlight”

With 209 searches on the counter in 2022, an average of between 3 and 4 per week, he has serious know-how in this area. “We know that companies are formed and therefore the idea is to immediately establish a relationship of authority, continues the manager. You have to know how to deploy effectively and react quickly depending on what you find. The OCLCIFF is also a major provider of seizures of criminal assets: 52 million euros in 2022. This year, the brigade specializing in tax evasion achieved a record by seizing 461 million euros from a man of British businessman who made his fortune in real estate.

The acme of labor undoubtedly remains the hearing of the defendants – 253 in 2022, including 48 in police custody. “We are dealing with people who are often highly educated, socially integrated, at the head of a large network and who are convinced that they are not criminals”, summarizes Commissioner Hézard.

“There is no desire to pin so and so on our hunting board”, explains Guillaume Hézard, the head of the anti-corruption police. LP/Philippe Lavieille

To clients who also hold or have held the highest positions, such as the former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, whom the two men heard on several occasions, and in particular under police custody in 2018 in the file of the alleged Libyan financing of his campaign. “It was a strong moment, confesses Pascal Fontenille. Of course I was a little apprehensive. The key is upstream work and perfect knowledge of the file. »

Guillaume Hézard also describes a significant episode in his career. “Hearing a former President of the Republic is not an act like the others, he admits. But in general, in our business, the hearings come at the end of the investigation, when we have already accumulated a lot of clues and we want to confront the respondent. »

Respondents who sometimes consider themselves above the law

Even if they rub shoulders with the elite of white-collar delinquency, the investigators do not consider themselves white knights. “There is no desire to pin so and so on our hunting board. We fulfill a mission, without preferential treatment but without excess either”, assures Commissioner Hézard.

They are just as annoyed by the witchcraft trials initiated by some of their clients, quick to denounce the personal crusade of a magistrate, an investigator or a supposed black cabinet. “It’s obviously too simplistic, sweeps the officer. A judicial inquiry is the result of collective work. As for the conspiracy theory, the human psyche will always prefer it to reality…”

OCLCIFF cases often end in deals between the prosecution and the defendants who accept the guilty plea procedure. But when the most important cases arrive in court, it is not uncommon to see investigators settling in the back of the courtroom. And if the convictions fall, a smile lights up their faces with the satisfaction of seeing that justice passes for all.

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