Hamstrung by legal provisions that make it hard to bring a case, and coupled with a lack of appetite to properly investigate or prosecute French companies and individuals anyway, France has tolerated corporate corruption for too long.
The conspicuous lack of French scalps for bribery and corruption committed abroad speaks volumes. In September 2012 the Paris Criminal District Court fined (partly state-owned) French defence company Safran €500,000 (U.S.$520,643) for paying bribes to Nigerian officials to secure a contract to produce national ID cards. However, the Paris Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in January 2015 as an “insufficiently grounded” offence.
