French and Dutch investigators raid Netflix offices in probe of suspected financial wrongdoing
PARIS (AP) — Prosecutors and police investigators who specialize in fighting fraud and corruption raided Netflix offices in France and the Netherlands on Tuesday, in a probe of suspected financial wrongdoing, judicial officials said.
French and Dutch authorities have been working together for many months on the investigation centering on the suspected laundering of tax fraud and off-the-books work, said a judicial official in France who spoke on condition of anonymity because of French secrecy laws that apply to judicial probes.
French police investigators carried out searches of the streaming giant’s French headquarters, the judicial official said. The investigators from a police brigade that specializes in major tax fraud, money laundering, corruption and white-collar financial crime were accompanied by officials from the French national prosecutors’ office that also combats financial crimes, the official said.
“We are co-operating with the authorities in France, where Netflix is a significant contributor to the local economy — and we comply with the tax laws and regulations in all the countries in which we operate,” a Netflix spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The probe was opened in November 2022, the official said.
In the Netherlands, Dutch prosecutors also raided Netflix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam. Emma Bosma, a spokesperson for the National Office for Serious Fraud, Environmental Crime and Asset Confiscation, said the raid was carried out at the request of French authorities.
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AP correspondent Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.