You tried to log into your French bank account this morning. Zero. Or your notaire just called to say the sale of your Paris apartment cannot go through — there is a judicial order blocking the title. No warning letter came first. No formal charge. No explanation yet.
Welcome to the saisie pénale spéciale — France’s criminal asset seizure procedure. It can freeze your money or property for years, before any trial, without your prior knowledge, and with no automatic review date. This article explains how it works, what your real options are, and what you need to do in the next 72 hours.
One thing before anything else: the 10-day window to formally contest a criminal seizure order runs from the date the court mailed the notification — not the date you received it. A registered letter from Paris to Dubai or New York can take two to three weeks. By the time you read it, your main line of defense may already be closed. This is not a technicality. It is the single most consequential feature of this procedure for anyone living outside France.
There are three reasons your French account or property could be frozen — and only one is covered here
Before going further, confirm you are dealing with a criminal seizure and not one of the two other types of French asset freeze, which involve entirely different courts and entirely different procedures.
| What froze your assets | Who ordered it | Where to challenge it | Covered here? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unpaid French taxes, fines, or state debts | French tax authority (SATD procedure) | Tax office, then administrative court | No |
| A private creditor with a court judgment against you | A bailiff acting on the creditor’s behalf (saisie-attribution) | Enforcement judge (juge de l’exécution) | No |
| A criminal investigation — French or foreign | A criminal judge (JLD or investigating judge) | Specialized chamber of the Court of Appeal | Yes |
The easiest diagnostic: if you received letters from the French tax office before the freeze, it is almost certainly a tax seizure. If nothing arrived beforehand — if the freeze appeared without warning, signaled only by your bank or your notaire — it is almost certainly a criminal seizure. Using the wrong procedure wastes your 10-day window and, in some cases, costs you the right to challenge at all.
How French criminal asset seizures work: what you need to understand before anything else
A French criminal asset seizure is not a punishment. It is not a finding of guilt. It is not even a formal accusation.
In French law, the saisie pénale spéciale is a purely conservatory measure — equivalent to what English law calls a freezing order or an asset preservation order, and broadly similar to what American law calls pre-trial asset restraint. Its sole legal purpose is to ensure that if you are one day convicted and a confiscation order is made against you, there is still something left to confiscate. The freeze is the lock on the door; confiscation, if it ever comes, is the permanent transfer of ownership.
What shocks most non-French clients is this: in most common law systems, serious asset freezes are either civil procedures with their own courts, or they follow a conviction. In France, a criminal asset freeze can be ordered during the investigation, within the first weeks of a case, on the sole basis of a prosecutor’s request to a judge — with no prior hearing, no notification, and no set end date.
The legal framework sits in articles 706-141 and following of the French Code of Criminal Procedure (Code de procédure pénale), introduced by the so-called Warsmann Law of July 9, 2010, and significantly reinforced by a second Warsmann Law in June 2024.
Bank account freeze
The French criminal prosecutor (procureur de la République) can ask a judge called the liberty and custody judge (juge des libertés et de la détention, or JLD) to freeze your French bank account while you — or someone connected to your account — are under investigation. The funds are transferred to a state agency called AGRASC (Agence de gestion et de recouvrement des avoirs saisis et confisqués), which holds them at the Caisse des Dépôts, a state-backed deposit institution. From that moment, you cannot access the funds, receive transfers, or make any payments.
There is one specific scenario worth knowing immediately. During a preliminary investigation (enquête préliminaire), a police officer (officier de police judiciaire) can freeze a bank account on the prosecutor’s verbal authorization alone — before any judge has reviewed the measure. French law then requires the JLD to issue a formal order confirming or lifting the freeze within 10 days of the seizure. If no judicial order comes within that window, the freeze loses its legal effect automatically, as of right (Cass. crim., 7 juin 2017, n°16-86898). This is the first thing your French lawyer should check: the exact date of the freeze, and whether a judicial confirmation order exists and was issued on time.
One recent development worth noting: since the June 2024 reform, police officers can also directly freeze funds held in payment accounts with European neo-banks — Revolut, Wise, N26, and similar providers — even if those institutions are not physically based in France.
Real estate freeze
If you own French property — an apartment, a house, commercial space, or land — the investigating judge can order a real estate freeze (saisie pénale immobilière, articles 706-150 and following of the Code of Criminal Procedure). AGRASC registers this seizure at the French land registry, the equivalent of a legal charge in English law — one you cannot remove yourself. From that moment, you cannot sell, mortgage, donate, or transfer the property in any way.
Two features of the real estate freeze surprise nearly every foreign owner. First: the freeze covers the full value of the property, even if you only own a share of it. Second: you remain legally responsible for all maintenance costs, property taxes (taxe foncière), and co-ownership service charges (charges de copropriété) throughout the freeze — even though you cannot sell or use the property. The French state does not pay these for you. A frozen apartment in Paris still generates management fees, and they are your problem until the freeze is lifted or the asset is confiscated.
You received no warning: why this is legal, and what it means in practice
French criminal procedure expressly allows asset seizures to be ordered inaudita altera parte — Latin for « without hearing the other party. » The practical logic is straightforward: if you were told in advance, you might move the assets before the freeze takes effect. The European Court of Human Rights has consistently validated this approach for interim conservatory measures.
What you should receive — after the freeze is already executed — is formal notification by registered letter from the court registry (greffe). In practice, this notification often arrives weeks after the freeze is in place. If you live outside France, it may take considerably longer.
This is where the single most dangerous feature of the procedure lies for foreign asset owners. The 10-day deadline to formally challenge the seizure runs from the date the court mailed the letter — specifically, the postmark on the registry’s outgoing envelope — not the date you received it. A letter sent from the Paris court registry to Beirut, Dubai, or London often arrives after the window has already closed.
If you suspect a freeze is in place but have not yet received any formal document, do not wait. Contact the registry of the criminal court (greffe du tribunal judiciaire) in the French city where the investigation appears to be based. Your French bank or notaire may have already received a copy of the order. Your French criminal defense lawyer can obtain this within hours.
You may not even be the suspect
This is the aspect of French criminal seizure law that most surprises non-French clients, and the one most consistently overlooked in available English-language resources.
You are formally under investigation
This is the situation people expect. If you have been formally placed under investigation (mis en examen) in France, you are the primary person affected by any seizure of your assets. You have direct standing to challenge the order.
You are not being investigated, but your French account or property is still frozen
This is more common than people realize, and it operates through a concept called libre disposition — « free disposal. » French law allows a criminal seizure to target assets that are legally owned by a third party but effectively controlled by the suspect. If the court concludes that the suspect was the real economic owner of the asset — regardless of who holds the title — the asset can be seized.
Classic examples: you own an apartment in Paris, but a family member occupies it rent-free, manages it entirely, and made the mortgage payments using funds from an alleged criminal scheme. Or a company you partly own holds the title to a property, but the person under investigation effectively controls the company and the asset. In both cases, the court may seize the asset on the theory that the suspect had libre disposition of it.
If this is your situation, two things matter immediately. First: your good faith as a third-party owner is presumed from the outset (Cass. crim., 26 juin 2019, n°18-84650). It is the prosecution’s burden to establish that you knew about, or could not have been unaware of, the alleged criminal activity. Second: you must act by yourself. The suspect cannot challenge the seizure on your behalf. French courts have been explicit on this point (Cass. crim., 1er février 2023, n°22-83.272). If you do not file your own challenge, no one will file it for you.
The freeze came from your home country’s authorities
France actively cooperates with foreign governments on criminal asset recovery. If your home country’s prosecutors sent a mutual legal assistance request to France, French courts may execute it by freezing your French assets.
Within the European Union (with the exception of Ireland and Denmark), freezing orders are recognized and enforced automatically under EU Regulation 2018/1805. French courts must execute them without re-examining whether the underlying charges are well-founded.
Outside the EU, France operates under bilateral mutual legal assistance treaties with many countries — the United States, Morocco, Lebanon, the UAE, Switzerland, and others. The French prosecutor acts as intermediary and can apply a limited public order filter.
The critical limitation: when your French asset is frozen pursuant to a foreign judicial request, French courts have no jurisdiction to assess whether you, as a third-party owner, acted in good faith (Cass. crim., 29 juin 2016). The defense of good-faith third-party ownership, which is powerful in purely domestic French proceedings, is unavailable here. Your defense strategy in France must focus on French procedural requirements for executing the foreign request. You may simultaneously need to challenge the underlying proceedings in your home country.
One important safeguard: if the foreign proceedings collapse — the foreign investigation is dropped, the suspect is acquitted, or the foreign confiscation order is ultimately refused execution — the French freeze must be lifted as of right.
Who can legally challenge the seizure — and who cannot
French law is precise about standing. Filing a challenge as a party who has no legal right to do so wastes your 10-day window entirely and achieves nothing.
You have standing to challenge if you are:
- The registered owner of the frozen asset.
- A person with documented legal rights over the asset — a co-owner, a mortgage holder, the holder of a dismembered right (usufruit or nue-propriété).
- The person under investigation, in cases where the seizure was based on your alleged control over an asset not legally in your name (Cass. crim., 9 juin 2022, n°21-86.360).
- Both spouses, in cases where a civil property company (SCI) is seized on the basis that they jointly had libre disposition of the property (Cass. crim., 1er février 2023, n°22-83.272).
You do not have standing if you are:
- The bank holding the frozen account — the bank has a separate internal procedure if it wishes to contest its obligation to consign the funds (Cass. crim., 19 octobre 2022, n°21-86.652).
- A company whose shares were seized by police rather than whose assets were directly frozen (Cass. crim., 26 janvier 2022, n°21-83.389).
- A victim or civil party to the proceedings (Cass. crim., 22 juin 2022, n°21-87.334).
- A person who was simply named in the court’s notification — notification alone does not give you standing (Cass. crim., 9 juin 2022, n°21-85.805).
If you hold your French property through a company — a French SCI, a foreign LLC, a trust — the standing analysis becomes significantly more complex. Confirm with a French criminal defense lawyer exactly which entity or person has the right to file before the 10-day window closes.
The 10-day window: your primary line of defense
What you are filing and where
The formal challenge is called an appel — an appeal — against the seizure order. It is filed by declaration at the registry of the court that issued the order (déclaration au greffe). It can also be sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. Either way, the filing or sending must take place within 10 days of the postmark on the outgoing notification from the court. If you are abroad and choose the registered letter route, what matters is the postmark on your letter — not the date it arrives at the court.
One procedural protection worth knowing: the president of the chamber cannot dismiss your appeal on procedural grounds without examining the substance. The appeal must always be examined on its merits (Cass. crim., 20 avril 2022, n°21-86.006 ; Cass. crim., 14 novembre 2023, n°23-82.239).
The appeal has no suspensive effect: the freeze remains fully operative while your challenge is pending. There is no statutory deadline for the court to rule — only an obligation to decide within a reasonable time.
Which court handles your appeal
France does not have a single court for asset freeze challenges. The right court depends on the type of asset frozen and the stage of the investigation.
As a general rule, your appeal goes to a specialized chamber of the regional court of appeal (chambre de l’instruction de la cour d’appel) covering the jurisdiction where the investigation is based. If the investigation is managed by the Paris prosecutor’s office, the relevant court is the Paris Court of Appeal. If it is in Marseille, it is Marseille’s Court of Appeal.
The specific formation within that court matters. For most criminal seizures — real estate, patrimony, non-dispossession orders, and bank account confirmations ordered by the JLD — the appeal goes to the full chamber (chambre de l’instruction). For seizures of financial claims and amounts in value (saisie en valeur, article 706-153), the appeal goes specifically to the president of that chamber sitting alone as a single judge.
Filing with the wrong court, or the wrong formation of the right court, renders your appeal inadmissible. This is not a minor risk.
What documents you are entitled to see
Here is something that surprises nearly every non-French client: you do not get access to the full criminal file. You are only entitled to the specific documents that directly relate to the seizure you are contesting — the prosecutor’s request (requête), the judge’s order, the seizure report (procès-verbal de saisie) where one exists, and any document the court expressly cites in its reasoning (Cass. crim., 24 octobre 2018, n°17-86.199 ; Cass. crim., 17 février 2021, n°20-81.397).
The chamber cannot base its confirmation of the freeze on documents it has not shared with you. If it does, that constitutes grounds to overturn the decision on further appeal (Cass. crim., 12 mai 2015, n°14-81.590 ; Cass. crim., 25 juin 2025, n°24-83.935). Your French lawyer should verify at the outset exactly which documents have been communicated and cross-check them against the reasoning in the order.
The counter-intuitive case for appealing even when you expect to lose
Even in cases where the legal grounds for lifting the freeze are genuinely weak, filing the appeal serves a purpose that many non-French clients do not initially appreciate: it forces the court to disclose the documents on which the seizure was based.
If you are subject to a preliminary investigation (enquête préliminaire) without having been formally charged, you normally have no access to the investigation file. The appeal procedure — even an unsuccessful one — is often the only mechanism available to understand what evidence the prosecutors are relying on, what theory of the offense they are advancing, and whether the factual basis for the seizure is solid or fragile. That information shapes every subsequent decision, including whether to seek a negotiated resolution and how to position yourself in any parallel proceedings in your home country.
The grounds for lifting a French criminal asset freeze
The seizure was procedurally invalid
French courts apply procedural rules strictly, and a procedural defect in the seizure can lead to automatic mainlevée — the automatic lifting of the freeze — without any examination of the underlying merits.
The most important scenario for bank account freezes: if a police officer froze your account without a prior judicial order, relying solely on the prosecutor’s authorization, the JLD must formally confirm or lift the freeze within 10 days of the date of the seizure. If no judicial order was issued within that 10-day period, the freeze loses its legal effect automatically (Cass. crim., 7 juin 2017, n°16-86898). Check the date the account was frozen, and the date of any subsequent judicial order. If the gap exceeds 10 days, you have a strong nullity argument that does not require any engagement with the merits of the underlying case.
A second scenario: if the JLD issued the seizure order after the investigation had already been formally closed and the case referred to a trial court, the order is null for incompetence (Cass. crim., 8 avril 2021, n°20-85.474). When this nullity is established, the court of appeal must declare the freeze lifted immediately — it cannot substitute its own decision or order a fresh seizure on the same basis (Cass. crim., 4 novembre 2021, n°21-80.571). A new seizure is possible only after the asset has first been returned to you (Cass. crim., 23 février 2022, n°21-82.588).
A third scenario: if the court of appeal confirmed the freeze based on documents it did not disclose to you, that confirmation can be overturned (Cass. crim., 25 juin 2025, n°24-83.935).
Your asset cannot legally be confiscated
A criminal asset freeze has one legal purpose: to secure a potential future confiscation. If the frozen asset cannot legally be confiscated, the freeze has no basis.
Confiscability is assessed at the moment of the alleged offense, not at the time of the seizure. A change in French law making an asset confiscable that took effect after the offense was allegedly committed cannot be applied retroactively against you — the principle of non-retroactivity of stricter criminal law applies (Cass. crim., 6 mai 2015, n°15-80.077).
In a preliminary investigation, the seizure additionally requires the existence of specific indicia of the alleged offense against the person under investigation. If those indicia are absent or insufficient, confiscability cannot be established (Cass. crim., 6 novembre 2024, n°23-84.265).
Events occurring after the seizure order are also relevant: if the investigation has since been dropped, the suspect has died, key charges have been abandoned, or a formal indictment has been invalidated for lack of serious and consistent evidence, the chamber must take those developments into account when reviewing the freeze (Cass. crim., 26 juin 2019, n°19-80.235).
One specific defense available to some foreign nationals: if you hold a recognized diplomatic or international immunity that would strip French courts of jurisdiction over the case entirely, you can invoke that immunity as grounds for mainlevée (Cass. crim., 1er février 2023, n°22-82.235).
You are a third-party owner who acted in good faith
If your asset was frozen because the suspect allegedly had real control over it, French law offers you a specific defense as a tiers de bonne foi — a good-faith third-party owner.
Your good faith is legally presumed from the outset of the proceedings. The prosecution bears the burden of proving bad faith — specifically, that you knew about the alleged criminal activity, or could not have been unaware of it. Bad faith tends to be inferred in the following types of situations: the suspect and the legal owner share the same corporate director; the suspect financed the acquisition of the asset using funds from the alleged scheme; the suspect occupied or managed the property as if they owned it; the legal structure (SCI, shell company) was clearly designed to place assets beyond the reach of creditors or investigators.
Conversely, documenting your good faith requires affirmative evidence: purchase contracts showing the legitimate origin of the funds used, loan agreements with a bank, evidence that you — not the suspect — actively managed the asset, tax returns reflecting ownership. The more complete and contemporaneous this documentation, the stronger your position.
The seizure is disproportionate
Both French law and Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights — protecting the right to peaceful enjoyment of property — require that asset freezes be proportionate to the gravity of the alleged offense, the value of the asset, and the legitimate aim pursued.
Two technical proportionality arguments deserve particular attention.
Equivalence control (contrôle d’équivalence): the total value of all seizures in value (saisies en valeur) combined — meaning seizures by equivalent rather than in kind — cannot exceed the total value of what could ultimately be confiscated. If multiple defendants or co-conspirators have had assets frozen, the cumulative value of all those freezes cannot exceed the total alleged criminal proceeds (Cass. crim., 11 mai 2022, n°21-82.280 ; Cass. crim., 5 avril 2023, n°22-81.178). If you are one of several people with frozen assets in the same investigation, compare the aggregate values. An excess requires a partial or total mainlevée.
Mortgaged property: if your frozen French property is subject to a mortgage or other registered charge that pre-dates the seizure, the value of that charge must be deducted from the property’s gross value when calculating the maximum permissible seizure amount (Cass. crim., 13 décembre 2023, n°22-86.871 ; Cass. crim., 10 janvier 2024, n°22-86.866 ; Cass. crim., 7 mai 2024, n°23-83.632). This point is routinely overlooked by prosecutors when drafting seizure requests, and it is rarely challenged — which is precisely why it is worth raising.
What actually happens to your frozen assets in the meantime
Once a French criminal seizure order is in force, the following applies — most of it surprises foreign asset owners.
Frozen bank funds are transferred to AGRASC and held at the Caisse des Dépôts. No interest accrues in your favor. No access, no outgoing transfers, no incoming payments that you can dispose of.
Frozen real estate is encumbered by a legal notice at the French land registry. You cannot sell, mortgage, donate, or transfer the property. Under article 706-150 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the freeze covers the full assessed value of the property — even if you co-own it with others. In an indivisible property, the seizure encumbers the whole.
Your costs do not stop. You remain legally responsible for all maintenance, property taxes, and co-ownership charges until the freeze is lifted or the asset is confiscated (article 706-143 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The state manages nothing for you unless it authorizes AGRASC to take over management — which happens only in cases of owner default or unavailability.
Your tenant keeps paying rent — usually. Unless a separate court order has frozen your rental income specifically (a distinct legal step that is not always taken), your tenant’s obligation to pay rent continues. Check the text of your specific seizure order. If no saisie de créances de loyers appears in it, your rental income is unaffected by the seizure.
Your asset can be sold before the trial ends. This is the risk that foreign owners most consistently underestimate. If maintaining the frozen asset generates costs that are disproportionate relative to its value — or if the asset is at risk of significant depreciation — the prosecutor or investigating judge can authorize AGRASC to sell the asset in advance of any verdict (articles 41-5 and 99-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). This is particularly relevant for commercial properties, businesses, or assets that require active management. An empty restaurant, an unfinished apartment development, a vintage vehicle — all are vulnerable to early sale. The proceeds are held by AGRASC in place of the asset. If the case ends without confiscation, you recover the proceeds, not the asset.
Practical consequence: if your frozen asset is of a type that depreciates or incurs ongoing costs, communicate clearly with your French lawyer about opposing any remise à l’AGRASC for early sale, and consider whether you can demonstrate the ability and willingness to maintain the asset yourself.
If the 10-day window has closed: your remaining options
Missing the 10-day deadline does not eliminate all recourse. It changes the nature of the fight.
Once the direct challenge to the seizure order is no longer available, you shift to a restitution request (demande de restitution). Instead of attacking the order itself, you ask the competent authority to lift the freeze on the basis that it is no longer justified — that the balance between the investigative interest in the freeze and your rights as a property owner has shifted.
The competent authority depends on the stage of proceedings: the prosecutor during the preliminary investigation, the investigating judge during a formal judicial investigation, and the trial court once the case has been set for hearing. The restitution request has no statutory form — but it must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or filed by declaration at the registry, because the method of filing determines whether any refusal — or silence, which counts as a refusal — can be challenged on appeal.
Silence counts as a refusal — but the deadline differs depending on who you asked. If the request was addressed to the investigating judge (juge d’instruction), one month of silence constitutes an implicit refusal. If addressed to the prosecutor (procureur de la République), that period is two months (article 802-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). Once either of those periods has passed without a response, the implicit refusal can be appealed in the same way as an express refusal.
Grounds for refusing restitution are broader than grounds for the initial challenge. The authority can refuse if the asset constitutes an instrument or product of the alleged offense, if restitution would obstruct the investigation, if restitution would endanger persons or property, or if a legal provision requires the asset’s destruction. These grounds give the authority significant discretion that the direct appeal procedure does not.
One critical exception applies after a dropped investigation. If the case was formally closed without prosecution (classement sans suite), the prosecutor cannot refuse restitution on the grounds that the asset is the proceeds of a crime — because no court has established that any crime occurred. After a dropped investigation, the only valid grounds for refusal are danger to persons or property, or a specific legal provision requiring destruction (Cass. crim., 1er février 2023, n°22-80.461, FS-B). This is a significantly stronger position than it might appear.
The six-month forfeiture deadline. If the investigation is dropped and neither you nor the prosecutor takes action on the frozen assets within six months of the closure decision, the assets become the property of the French state — not by confiscation, but by simple forfeiture through inaction. This deadline may not apply to persons who were never properly notified of the closure decision (Cons. const., 9 juillet 2014, n°2014-406 QPC) — but you must actively raise that argument. Do not assume the deadline is running without checking.
If restitution is refused — expressly or by implicit refusal through silence — you have one month to appeal that decision to the first president of the court of appeal or the magistrate designated by that president (in practice, the president of the chambre de l’instruction). This recourse is suspensive: the asset cannot be alienated, destroyed, or remitted to AGRASC while the appeal is pending.
What happens if you are acquitted or the case is dropped
If the criminal proceedings end without conviction — by acquittal, dismissal, no-prosecution decision, or a finding that there is no case to answer — the freeze must be lifted as a matter of law. This is not in dispute.
What is less well understood is that the lifting is not automatic in practice. You will typically need to take active steps, through your French criminal defense lawyer, to trigger the formal mainlevée and recover access to your funds or clear the registration on your property title.
The six-month window applies here too. After the final decision ending the proceedings, you must request or obtain restitution within six months. After that period, the frozen assets become the property of the French state, even though you were never convicted.
If your property was confiscated in proceedings to which you were never a party, the correct procedure is a requête en difficulté d’exécution — a request challenging the execution of the confiscation decision. This is the specific route for third-party owners who were not called to participate in the proceedings in which their property was seized and ultimately confiscated.
Compensation for wrongful freezes. This is where the French system is notably harsh by international standards. There is no general right to compensation for losses suffered during a criminal asset freeze that ends without conviction. The legal mechanism used for wrongful pre-trial detention (article 149 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) does not extend to asset freezes. Claims before the European Court of Human Rights under Article 1 of Protocol 1 have succeeded in cases involving excessively long freezes without any form of redress, but they require the prior exhaustion of all French domestic remedies — a process that typically takes years.
The 2024 reform: why acting sooner has become more urgent
The June 2024 reform — Law n°2024-582 of June 24, 2024 — significantly strengthened France’s criminal seizure and confiscation framework. Several changes directly alter the strategic position of anyone with frozen assets in France.
Confiscation of seized assets is now mandatory in some cases. For assets already frozen during a criminal investigation that are found at trial to constitute the proceeds, object, or instrument of the alleged offense, confiscation is now mandatory — the sentencing court has no discretion to order otherwise (article 131-21 of the Criminal Code, as amended). This changes the calculus entirely: if your asset could be characterized as the proceeds or instrument of the offense, the only meaningful defense available is obtaining a mainlevée before the case reaches the trial stage. Once the trial court is seized and the asset falls within the mandatory confiscation category, the outcome is fixed.
Neo-banks are now reachable. Police officers can directly freeze funds held in payment accounts — Revolut, Wise, N26, and similar European providers — without requiring those institutions to be physically based in France.
Confiscation of real estate now operates as an eviction notice. A final confiscation judgment against a property automatically entitles the state to evict the convicted person and anyone living there by virtue of the convicted person’s occupancy. The exception is good-faith tenants who hold a valid lease concluded with the property owner prior to the confiscation — they cannot be evicted on the basis of the confiscation alone.
Some procedural changes affect which court hears which appeal. For certain simpler categories of seizure — particularly preliminary-stage movable asset seizures governed by articles 41-5 and 99-2 — appeals now go to the first president of the court of appeal sitting as a single judge, rather than to the full chambre de l’instruction. Filing with the wrong formation can render your appeal inadmissible. Confirm the applicable rule with your French lawyer before filing.
First 72 hours: what to do right now
Step one: confirm the type of freeze. Use the table at the top of this article. Everything that follows applies only to criminal seizures.
Step two: get a copy of the seizure order immediately. Contact the registry (greffe) of the criminal court (tribunal judiciaire) in the French city where the investigation appears to be based. Your French bank or notaire may already have a copy. Do not wait for the registered letter to arrive — particularly if you are outside France.
Step three: check the date on the outgoing envelope, not your received date. The 10-day window runs from the postmark on the court’s outgoing mail. Calculate immediately how many days remain.
Step four: retain a French criminal defense lawyer registered at the bar of the relevant court of appeal. The challenge must be filed by a lawyer (avocat) registered in France. A lawyer from your home country cannot file this for you, and a French civil litigation lawyer is not the right profile for this procedure. This needs to happen today if the window is still open.
Step five: gather documentation proving the lawful origin of your funds or property. Bank statements, purchase contracts, loan agreements from recognized financial institutions, inheritance documentation, tax returns. The cleaner and more complete this paper trail, the stronger your position on confiscability and good faith.
Step six: do not speak to French investigators or police without your lawyer. This applies whether you are formally under investigation or not. It applies if investigators contact you by phone or email from abroad. It applies if you are asked as a witness rather than as a suspect.
Step seven: ask your lawyer to identify the source of the seizure. Was it ordered by a French JLD on a French prosecutor’s request? Did it originate in a foreign mutual legal assistance request? The answer determines the entire defense strategy.
Step eight: keep paying your French property costs. If you own frozen real estate, continue paying all service charges, property taxes, and maintenance. You remain legally responsible for these regardless of the freeze, and falling behind creates additional legal exposure.
Step nine: do not attempt to transfer funds or move assets. Opening a new bank account to receive the frozen funds, transferring property to a family member, or restructuring ownership of a company holding the frozen asset can all be characterized as attempts to conceal assets or obstruct justice — converting what may be a civil or third-party issue into active criminal exposure.
Step ten: if the 10-day window has already passed, do not give up. Ask your lawyer about filing a restitution request, assess whether the six-month forfeiture deadline applies to your situation, and evaluate whether any post-freeze developments — a dropped investigation, a reduced indictment, an acquittal in related proceedings — provide grounds for mainlevée.
Conclusion
A French criminal asset freeze is one of the most disorienting legal situations a foreign account holder or property owner can face — not because French law is uniquely unjust, but because it operates on assumptions entirely different from most common law systems. No prior conviction is required. No prior hearing is held. No automatic review date is set. No compensation is guaranteed if the case collapses.
The 10-day window to contest the seizure order directly runs from the date the court mailed the notification. If you live outside France, that window may be gone by the time the letter reaches you. Every day without a French criminal defense lawyer is a day closer to the moment when your primary line of defense closes permanently.
Valentin Simonnet is an English-speaking member of the Paris Bar, trained at University College London. He represents international clients before French courts.
