French authorities search SocGen's offices in tax fraud investigation

PARIS (Reuters) -Investigators from the French national financial prosecutor's office (PNF) have searched the offices of Societe Generale in Paris and in Luxembourg as part of a tax fraud investigation, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

The homes of four people, mostly bank executives, were also searched, and these people were taken into custody, the source said, confirming a report by French newspaper Le Monde.

Societe Generale declined to comment.

The raids are part of a preliminary investigation opened in 2024 into the French bank led by the prosecution office opened in January 2024, for "tax fraud laundering", "organised or aggravated tax fraud laundering" and "criminal conspiracy", the source said.

Authorities are investigating the conditions under which a department of the bank was able to "propose and carry out set-ups for essentially tax purposes for the benefit of major French companies," the source said.

"The actions are likely to have been committed since 2009 in France and abroad, notably in Luxembourg."

This investigation is separate from the so-called "cum-ex" dividend stripping probe involving SocGen, the source said.

In March 2023, French authorities searched the Paris offices of five banks, including Societe Generale, on suspicion of fiscal fraud, part of a broad European investigation into the avoidance of dividend tax payments.

The PNF said at the time that the probe was linked to so-called "cum-ex" dividend stripping, a trading scheme whereby banks and investors swiftly trade shares of companies around their dividend payout day.

The practice aims to blur stock ownership and allow multiple parties to illegally claim tax rebates on dividends.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Makini Brice; Editing by Jan Harvey and Louise Heavens)