Option Droit & Affaires | Thomas Amico: Corruption in Ports, Preventing the Domino Effect Is a Legal Obligation!
As key hubs for drug trafficking, French ports are now subject to stronger anti-corruption obligations. The Law of June 13, 2025, aimed at freeing France from the drug-trafficking trap, extends the framework of Article 17 of the Sapin II Law to all port facility operators handling containers, regardless of their size.
Following the release last September by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) of a series of videos designed to raise awareness of corruption risks among port professionals, Thomas Amico, a partner specializing in white-collar crime, breaks down the practical implications of this new framework for Option Droit & Affaires.
He first highlights the importance of prevention: since criminal networks target positions that provide access to goods and information systems, the chain reaction in which one corrupted individual draws in others must be stopped at its source.
He then discusses the strengthening of prosecutorial tools, as money laundering is now classified as a concealed offense, meaning the statute of limitations only begins to run once the offense is discovered. This is a welcome development given how difficult it is to reconstruct complex transactions involving multiple countries and opaque financial structures.
However, Thomas Amico calls for vigilance regarding judicial safeguards: “the effectiveness of prosecutions must not undermine the fundamental rights of the individuals under investigation.”
Read his full analysis for Option Droit & Affaires below.
