Working Paper for 📺Overhang
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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, The French Judicial Public Interest Agreement and the time saved: the Areva and Orano CJIP of 2 December 2024, Working Paper, January 2025.
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🎤 This Working Paper was developed as a basis for the Overhang👁 video on 25 January 2025 : click HERE (in French)
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🎬🎬🎬In the collection of the Overhangs👁 It falls into the News category.
►Watch the complete collection of the Overhangs👁 : click HERE
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► Summary of this Working Paper: On 2 December 2024, Areva/Orano signed a Public Interest Judicial Agreement (CJIP) with the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office, validated by the order of 9 December 2024 of the President of the Paris Judicial Court. The case concerns the bribery of a foreign public official in Mongolia through the use of an intermediary.
This perfectly illustrates the primary advantage of this Compliance Tool, which consists of closing a situation that could deprive a company of the means to act in the future. Even if neither the CJIP nor the validation order constitutes an admission of guilt or a conviction, the acts of bribery of a foreign public official can no longer give rise to prosecution.
However, the future has been taken care of, because as soon as Tracfin passed the first information to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the company cooperated and set up a programme to actively fight corruption ("compliance programme"). The CJIP extends this by a compliance programme supervised by the French Anticorruption Agency.
One month after the CJIP, the Mongolian government and the company, in the presence of the French government, announced on 17 January 2025 the signing of a contract to operate a uranium mine, the same industrial coopération that had given rise to these reprehensible acts. The CJIP made it possible to move forward in time.
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🔓read the developments below⤵️
On January 17, 2025, Orano, the successor to Areva “offering products and services across the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from raw materials to waste treatment”, announced the signing of an investment agreement with the Mongolian government for the exploitation of a world-class uranium deposit in a Mongolian province.
Representatives of the French government were present at the signing, which took place in Mongolia.
Orano, 📰 Orano signs investment agreement with Mongolian state to develop world-class uranium deposit, press release, Jan. 17, 2025
For such an agreement to take place, a compliance tool: the Convention judiciaire d'intérêt public - CJIP (French Judicial Public Interest Agreement), concluded on December 2, 2024 between the company and the Parquet national financier - PNF (French National Financial Prosecutor's Office), made it possible through a judicial validation that was carried out on December 9, 2024, to close the examination and possible prosecution of past facts, to build this industrial partnership, signed 1 and a half months later.
🏛️validation order of the President of the Paris Judicial Court of December 9, 2024
I. THE FACTS
This CJIP was concluded between the PNF and two legal entities, not only Orano but also Areva. Indeed, the facts in question date back to the time when the company operating the nuclear material was not yet Orano but Areva, which explains why the CJIP was signed by these 2 companies.
The alleged facts concern the use in 1995 of a consultant whose function was to bribe a high-level Mongolian public official involved in the negotiations between Areva and the Mongolian administration, and this bribery of a foreign public official.
II. THE TIME SAVED, KEY CRITERION
The key is the use of efficient time management.
Indeed, these facts, the allegation of which is not contested, even if it is repeated that this does not constitute an admission of guilt and that neither the CJIP nor the order of the president of the judicial court which validates it constitutes a judgment of conviction, are not contested.
They date back to 1994, and were revealed in 2015. 10 years later, the CJIP eliminates the prospect of criminal proceedings against the legal entity.
The advantage of this is that, one month after the December 9, 2024 order was issued and the 10 days available for lodging an appeal had expired, the public corporation was able to enter into a contract with the Mongolian state for the same purpose as the one for which steps had been taken in 1994, the terms of which were contrary to international public policy.
The CJIP's compliance program has improved the overall situation. In 2015, it was Tracfin that reported the matter to the public prosecutor's office. The CJIP negotiation procedure led Areva and then Orano to anticipate the implementation of such a program, by putting in place compliance tools, such as the control of third parties, particularly intermediaries.
For the future, the implementation of this compliance program will be supervised by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), with the company paying 1.5 million Euros to do so.
All this is a legal backdrop to the industrial and political announcements made on January 17, 2024 between France and Mongolia, aimed at France's energy autonomy.
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