French Commercial code
In forceIt shall be punishable by five years' imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros for:
1° The chairman, directors or managing directors of a société anonyme to distribute fictitious dividends among the shareholders, in the absence of an inventory, or by means of fraudulent inventories ;
2° The chairman, directors or managing directors of a public limited company to publish or present to shareholders, even in the absence of any dividend distribution, annual accounts which do not give, for each financial year, a true and fair view of the result of the operations of the financial year, the financial situation and the assets and liabilities, at the end of that period, with a view to concealing the true situation of the company ;
3° The chairman, directors or managing directors of a public limited company to make, in bad faith, of the company's assets or credit, a use which they know to be contrary to the company's interests, for personal purposes or to favour another company or undertaking in which they are directly or indirectly interested ;
4° The chairman, directors or managing directors of a public limited company to make, in bad faith, of the powers they possess or the votes they have, in that capacity, a use they know to be contrary to the interests of the company, for personal ends or to favour another company or undertaking in which they are directly or indirectly interested.
In addition to the additional penalties provided for in Article L. 249-1, the court may also impose as an additional penalty, in the cases provided for in this article, the disqualification from civic, civil and family rights provided for in article 131-26 du code pénal.
The offence defined in 3° is punishable by seven years' imprisonment and a fine of €500,000 where it has been carried out or facilitated by means of accounts opened or contracts taken out with bodies established abroad, or by the interposition of natural or legal persons or any body, trust or comparable institution established abroad.
