Paragraph 2: Provisions relating to confiscation orders issued by French courts

The public prosecutor at the court which ordered the confiscation shall draw up the relevant certificate and shall transmit the decision and the certificate, in accordance with the procedures referred to in Article 713-4, to the competent authority of the competent State or States pursuant to articles 713-6 to 713-10. This transmission does not prevent confiscation from being carried out, in whole or in part, on the territory of the…

In principle, the confiscation order is transmitted for enforcement to a single State. If the confiscation order relates to specific items of property, the public prosecutor shall transmit it, together with the certificate, to the competent authority of the executing State in which he has reason to believe that the property is located.

However, if the public prosecutor has reason to believe that the confiscation of a specific item of property involves action in several States, or that one or more items covered by the confiscation order are located in different States, he or she shall transmit the confiscation order and the certificate to the competent authorities of those States.

If the confiscation order concerns a sum of money, the Public Prosecutor shall forward it, together with the certificate, to the competent authority of the State in which he has reason to believe that the natural or legal person possesses property or income. However, the Public Prosecutor may send the confiscation order to several States where, for particular reasons, he considers it necessary to do so. The total amount of…

If there is no means of determining the State in which the assets or income of the person against whom the order has been issued are located, the public prosecutor shall transmit the confiscation order and the certificate to the competent authority of the State in which the person concerned has his habitual residence or registered office.

Where the confiscation order relates to a sum of money and the competent authority of the executing State has substituted confiscation of property, consent to the transfer of that property shall be given by the Minister of Justice.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the court which ordered the confiscation of property shall immediately inform the competent authority of the executing State, by any means which leaves a written record, of any fact which has the effect of either depriving the order of its enforceability or removing its execution from the executing State, or of modifying the execution of the order. Where the confiscation order has been partially enforced,…