France Records Nearly 7,630 Money Laundering Suspects in 2025

French security services recorded nearly 7,630 people as suspects in money laundering offences in 2025, according to new statistics published by France’s Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI).

The figures form part of a new statistical series covering money laundering and terrorist financing cases recorded by French security services between 2021 and 2025. The data was published on October 7, 2026, as part of work conducted under France’s Council for the Orientation of the Fight Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (COLB).

The statistics distinguish between individuals recorded as being implicated in offences and those ultimately convicted. Being recorded as a person suspected or implicated in an offence does not constitute a finding of guilt.

Of the approximately 7,630 people recorded in connection with money laundering offences during 2025, around one-fifth were implicated in aggravated money laundering offences. Under French law, money laundering can be aggravated where it is committed habitually, through a professional activity or as part of an organised criminal group.

Drug trafficking represented the most significant identified context associated with money laundering cases. Approximately 40% of those recorded for money laundering were connected to laundering offences involving drug trafficking.

A further 20% were recorded in connection with money laundering involving tax, social security or customs fraud. The categories are not mutually exclusive, meaning that some individuals can be included in both groups.

The figures provide a picture of the criminal contexts in which money laundering offences are identified by French security services. They do not represent the total amount of criminal proceeds laundered in France, nor do they measure the number of successful prosecutions or convictions.

The same statistical publication recorded 27 people implicated in terrorist financing offences during 2025.

The new figures are based on data collected by French security services and were developed in cooperation with government administrations participating in COLB's statistical working group. The methodology has also been revised as part of work carried out in 2026.

As a result of the methodological changes, figures for previous years have been recalculated. The authorities have cautioned that the methods used to produce the indicators may be subject to further revision.

The publication is separate from the work of Tracfin, France's financial intelligence unit, which focuses on financial intelligence and suspicious transaction reporting. Tracfin reported that it received 278,484 suspicious transaction reports in 2025, representing a 32% increase compared with 2024.

The financial sector accounted for 93% of those reports, with 258,470 declarations submitted during the year. Reports from banks and credit institutions increased by 45%, while crypto-asset service providers submitted 4,850 reports, an increase of 58%.

Non-financial reporting entities accounted for the remaining 7%, or 20,014 reports, with particularly strong increases among notaries, gaming operators, commercial court registries and voluntary sales operators.

Tracfin also reported a 33% increase in the number of information notes relating specifically to money laundering that it transmitted to judicial authorities during 2025.

The French authorities have simultaneously increased their focus on organised crime and the movement of criminal assets. Tracfin reported that €40 million in criminal assets were seized through its “circuit court” mechanism during 2025, an increase of 40% compared with the previous year.

More than 8,000 companies were also reported to commercial court registries as part of measures targeting suspected criminal structures, with approximately 80% subsequently removed from the registers.

The SSMSI's new figures therefore provide a separate measure of the scale of money laundering cases identified by French security services, while Tracfin's figures measure suspicious financial activity reported to and processed by the financial intelligence system.

The publication also forms part of France's wider efforts to improve the statistical monitoring of money laundering and terrorist financing. The authorities said the work was undertaken in accordance with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force and France's public statistics authority.

For 2025, the security-service data identifies drug trafficking and financial fraud as the principal contexts associated with recorded money laundering cases, while also showing the continued presence of aggravated laundering offences and a smaller number of cases involving terrorist financing.

By fLEXI tEAM