This report by Observatoire ARGA and ARGA Atlas examines how criminal prosecution in financial-crime cases may be used not only to protect public interests, but also as a tool of economic pressure, asset redistribution, corporate influence and removal of participants from business relationships.

The authors show that financial allegations — fraud, money laundering, abuse of office, tax evasion or corruption — almost automatically trigger consequences that extend far beyond the national criminal process. A single case may lead to asset freezes, blocked accounts, termination of banking services, international search mechanisms, extradition requests, sanctions checks and long-term reputational harm.

The report identifies key indicators of instrumentalized prosecution: anomalies at the initiation stage, collateral purpose and selectivity, artificial choice of jurisdiction, restrictions on the defense’s ability to present and test evidence, disproportionate interim measures, formalistic judicial control, accelerated internationalization of the case and public information campaigns undermining the presumption of innocence.

The report’s central conclusion is that cross-border financial cases must be assessed not by the formal existence of criminal proceedings, but by the quality of judicial control, the nature of the evidentiary basis, the economic context, the proportionality of measures and the presence of third-party interests. Only this approach makes it possible to distinguish a good-faith investigation from the use of criminal proceedings as an instrument of international financial pressure.