€65M MCKINSEY MONEY TRAIL HIT: BELGIUM SEIZES 96% OF FRENCH TAX LOSS IN CROSS BORDER AML PROB

Belgian authorities have seized€65.2 million linked to a French investigation into suspected aggravated tax fraud and money laundering involving US consulting giant McKinsey, turning a long running French tax investigation into a major cross border asset recovery operation.

The seizure, carried out on 19 August following a request from France, represents96% of the tax loss estimated by French prosecutors. The investigation, led by France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, PNF, was opened in March 2022 and remains ongoing.

The case began after a French Senate inquiry examined the growing role of private consulting firms in public policy. McKinsey’s French operations subsequently came under criminal investigation over suspicions of aggravated tax fraud and the alleged laundering of proceeds connected to that tax fraud.

French investigators searched McKinsey offices in May 2022. Witnesses and suspects were subsequently questioned during 2025 and 2026 before investigators turned to Belgian authorities for assistance in locating assets.

That cross-border step is now central to the case. Belgian prosecutors located and seized €65,244,757.07,demonstrating how an investigation that begins with corporate tax arrangements can rapidly become an international asset tracing exercise when funds or assets connected to the investigation sit outside the jurisdiction leading the probe.

The Belgian and French prosecutors described the operation as evidence of the importance of an integrated judicial strategy for identifying, freezing and ultimately recovering criminal assets.

For compliance professionals, that message is significant

Tax fraud is increasingly being treated not simply as a revenue problem but as a potential predicate offence generating proceeds that can subsequently be concealed, transferred or integrated into the financial system. Once the investigation crosses into suspected money laundering, financial institutions and corporate structures can become critical points in the asset trail.

The case also illustrates the importance of tax  transparency, transfer pricing controls, beneficial ownership, intercompany payments and cross border transaction monitoring.

The French Senate inquiry had previously raised questions about McKinsey’s tax position in France and the structure of payments between group entities. The subsequent criminal investigation is separate from other French investigations involving the consulting industry and electoral campaign financing.

McKinsey has denied wrongdoing and said it is cooperating with French authorities. The seizure is a provisional judicial measure and does not constitute a conviction or a final confiscation.

The wider lesson reaches far beyond one multinational consultancy.

When suspected tax fraud generates a financial trail that crosses borders, the fight moves from calculating unpaid taxes to finding, freezing and preserving the money.

Tax compliance, AML and financial crime controls increasingly intersect. Corporates and financial institutions need robust oversight of intercompany transfers, transfer pricing arrangements, beneficial ownership, unusual cross border payments and transactions that could obscure the origin or destination of funds.