# Cash Investigation

This article is a partial translation of the Cash investigation article on the French Wikipedia. The image and some of the information it contains were drawn from there.
Cash Investigation is a French television news show. It produces investigative reports in the financial and business space. The investigations cover subjects such as greenwashing, neuromarketing and child labor. They also take on the diversion of public funds, tax evasion, lobbyist influence, conflicts of interest and information manipulation by spin doctors.
Put out by the Premières Lignes (Front Lines) production group, Luc Hermann and veteran journalist Paul Moreira, the broadcast operates in the tradition of such investigation news shows as 60 Minutes, Panorama, Frontline and Enquête (Inquiry).

## Premières Lignes Prizes

* 2016 International Current Affairs and Social Documentary Film Festival 2016 - Scam prize for investigation
* 2015 Press’Tival - Gilles Jacquier Grand Prize - for The unspeakable secrets of our telephones
Prix de l'investigation DIG Awards
* 2015 DIG Awards - Prize for European Investigation
* 2015 Data Journalism Awards - top prize for LuxLeaks (ICIJ and Edouard Perrin of Cash Investigation)
* 2015 non-profit Anticor's Prize for Ethics
* 2014 Press International - Grand Prize
* 2014 Ilaria Alpi Prize for international investigation
* 2014 Best Magazine Les Lauriers de l’Audiovisuel (Audiovisual Laurels)
* 2013 Le Parisien - Best Magazine Star
* 2013 Media Grand Prize—CB News
* 2012 European Louise Weiss European prize, decryption category

## Broadcasts

Each episode of season 1 (in 2012) also contained, in its second half, a portrait of a whistleblower.
When the broadcast faced cancellation viewers organized an online petition demanding its reinstatement. The show returned in June 2013.
Season 2 had five episodes. The report on tax evasion, broadcast in primetime following the Cahuzac scandal, was a critical and audience success.
In season 3 the show broadcast regularly in primetime on Tuesday evenings.
In July 2015, Premières Lignes put the program's broadcasts online on YouTube.
In season 3, the team for the first time produced an investigation specifically designed for the internet. Broadcast on Francetvinfo.fr, Ces entreprises qui vendent des systèmes de sécurité aux pires dictatures de la planète (These organizations that sell security systems to the worst dictatorships on the planet) completed the investigation outlined on the Business de la peur (The Business of Fear), broadcast of September 21, 2015.
France 2 ordered a fourth season from Premières Lignes, with the first numbers due to be broadcast in 2016.
Cash Investigation episodes are available online for a month after broadcast at pluzz.fr

### Season 1 (2012)

| Number | Date | Title | Director | Subject, comments |
| 1 | May 18, 2012 | « Toxic fringues » ("Toxic Togs") | Marie Maurice | Low cost clothing, (Zara, Inditex) Globalization Child labor Portrait: Erin Brockovich. |
| 2 | June 1, 2012 | « La mort programmée de nos appareils » (The Programmed Death of our Devices) | Anna Salzberg Wandrille Lanos | Programmed obsolescence Salt Portrait: researcher Pierre Mèneton. |
| 3 | June 8, 2012 | « La finance folle » (Insane Finance) | Irène Bénéfice Olivier Toscer | High-frequency trading Poly Implant Prothèse breast implants, with Richard Abs. |
| 4 | June 15, 2012 | « Gavés de sucre » ("Gorged on Sugar") | Edouard Perrin Jean-Baptiste Renaud | The sugar industry in France Portrait: Pablo Fajardo. |
| 5 | May 11, 2012 | « Paradis fiscaux: les petits secrets des grandes entreprises » (Tax havens: The Little Secrets of Big Business) | Edouard Perrin | Tax evasion Portrait: The Yes Men. |
| 6 | May 4, 2012 | « Marketing vert : le grand maquillage » | Jean-Pierre Canet Martin Boudot | Greenwashing World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Areva Portrait: Jeffrey Wigand. |
| 7 | April 27, 2012 | « Les vendeurs de maladies » (The Sellers of Illness) | Laurent Richard Wandrille Lanos | Pharmaceutical industry Portrait: Shanti Senthikuma. |
| 8 | May 25, 2012 | « Neuromarketing : votre cerveau les intéresse » (Neuromarketing: Your Brain Interests Them) | Benoît Bringer | Neuromarketing, SNCF, L'Oréal, plus the merchandizing of water (with Jean-Luc Touly). |

### Season 2 (2013)

| Number | Date | Time | Title | Director | Subject, comment | Audience | Audience share |
| 1 | Tuesday June 11, 2013 | 20h45 | « Le scandale de l'évasion fiscale : révélations sur les milliards qui nous manquent » ("The scandal of Tax Evasion: Revelations on the Billions We Are Missing") | Valentine Oberti, Wandrille Lanos and Edouard Perrin | Taxes Tax evasion | 3.6 million | 14.7% |
| 2 | Wednesday September 11, 2013 | 22h15 | « Foot business : enquête sur une omerta » ("Foot business: Investigation into a Code of Silence") | Martin Boudot | Economics of soccer | 1.4 million | 9.7% |
| 3 | Wednesday September 18, 2013 | 22h30 | « Les récoltes de la honte » (The Harvests of Shame") | Wandrille Lanos | Grande distribution, Corruption, Human trafficking | 1.3 million | 9.7% |
| 4 | Wednesday September 25, 2013 | 22h35 | « Diesel : la dangereuse exception française » ("Diesel, the Dangerous French Exception") | Edouard Perrin | Diesel, Filtre à particules, Health | 1.07 million | 9.5% |
| 5 | Wednesday October 2, 2013 | 22h35 | « Formation professionnelle, le grand détournement » ("Professional Training, the Big Detour") | Benoît Bringer | Continuing education, financement des syndicats | 1.4 million | 12.1% |

### Season 3 (2014-2015)

| Number | Date | Time | Title | Director | Subject, comment | Audience | Audience Share |
| 1 | Tuesday October 7, 2014 | 20h50 | « Industrie du tabac : la grande manipulation » | Laurent Richard | European Parliament Cigarettes Lobbying French government | 2.5 million | 10% |
| 2 | Tuesday November 4, 2014 | 20h50 | « Les secrets inavouables de nos téléphones portables » | Martin Boudot with Jules Giraudat | Smartphone Nokia Apple Samsung Huawei China | 3.6 million | 14.7% |
| 3 | Tuesday March 3, 2015 | 20h50 | « Quand les actionnaires s'en prennent à vos emplois » | Edouard Perrin | Sanofi Samsonite (Bain Capital) Pages-Jaunes | 3.2 million | |

### Season 4 (2015-2016)

| Number | Date | Time | Title | Director | Subject, comment | Audience | Audience share |
| 1 | Monday September 7, 2015 | 23h05 | « Mon président est en voyage d'affaires » | Laurent Richard | French foreign policy, Diplomacy, Human rights | 1,100,000 | 15.1 % |
| 2 | Monday September 14, 2015 | 23h05 | « Santé: la loi du marché » | Sylvain Louvet | Fee for service, Prescriptions, Social security, Pharmaceutical industry, Pharmaceutical lobby | 1,100,000 | 13.7 % |
| 3 | Monday September 25, 2015 | 23h05 | « Le business de la peur » | Jean-Pierre Canet | National security, biometric authentication, Identity theft, computer security, video surveillance, Parafe | 1,084,000 | 13.5 % |
| 4 | October 6, 2015 | 20h55 | « Marketing : les stratégies secrètes » | Wandrille Lanos | Sale of personal data (collected through telemarketing, digital footprint, loyalty cards), targeted advertising. iPhone. Danone. | 2,866,000 | 12.2 % |
| 5 | February 2, 2016 | 20h55 | « Produits chimiques, nos enfants en danger » | Martin Boudot | Pesticides, cancers, congenital disorders, multinational corporations | 3,120,000 | 13.2 % |
| 6 | March 22, 2016 | 20h55 | « Salariés à prix cassés : le grand scandale » | Sophie le Gall | Posted Workers, Bouygues, SNCF Geodis | 2,570,000 | 12.1 % |
| 7 | April 5, 2016 | 20h55 | « Paradis fiscaux : le casse du siècle » | Benoît Bringer | Shell corporation, tax noncompliance, Panama Papers | 3,568,000 | 17.1 % |
| 8 | May 24, 2016 | 20h55 | « Climat : le grand bluff des multinationales » | Jean-Baptiste Renaud | Carbon emission trading, Engie, Total S.A., LafargeHolcim, greenwashing | 2,659,000 | 12.4 % |
| 9 | June 27, 2016 | 22h40 | « Dopage : ça roule toujours » | Sophie le Gall | Doping in sport, athlete, Bernard Sainz | 1,051,000 | 7.6 % |

### Season 5 (2016-2017)

| Number | Date | Time | Title | Director | Subject, comment | Audience | Audience share |
| 1 | September 13, 2016 | 20h55 | « Industrie agro-alimentaire : business contre santé » | Sandrine Rigaud | Nitrite, nutrition facts label, ANIA | 2,764,000 | 13.3 % |
| 2 | October 18, 2016 | 20h55 | « Marchés publics : le grand dérapage » | Loïc Tanant, Nolwenn Le Fustec | Public–private partnership, Microsoft, Pôle emploi | 2,901,000 | 13.5 % |
| 3 | January 24, 2017 | 20h55 | « Razzia sur le bois, les promesses en kit des géants du meuble » | Marie Maurice | IKEA, deforestation in Romania, Asia Pulp & Paper, PEFC, Holzindustrie Schweighofer | 3,130,000 | 13.6 % |
| 4 | February 28, 2017 | 23h00 | « Cash Impact : les nouvelles révélations des Panama Papers » | Benoît Bringer | Panama papers | 714,000 | 10.1 % |
| 5 | March 21, 2016 | 20h50 | « Pédophilie dans l'Église : le poids du silence » | Martin Boudot | Pedophilia, priest, Catholic Church | 2,175,000 | 9.8 % |

## Credits

* Author - Jean-Baptiste Renaud
* Director - Jean-Baptiste Renaud
* Producers - Luc Hermann and Paul Moreira
* Image - Emmanrefuel Bach
* Montage - Myriam Milent
* Journalistes - Antoine G., Marion G.
* Editors-in-chief - Elise Lucet, Emmanuel Gagnier and Romain Verley

## Controversies

* In June 2012 the World Wildlife Fund sued France 2 to prevent broadcast of an interview of the NGO's management. The courts ruled in favor of France 2.
* On October 2, 2013, the program revealed that the French government had fined the training arm of Jardiland 3.2 million euros in September 2012. The issue was fraudulent transactions concerning hundreds of false training certificates issued between 2007 and 2011. The certificates allowed them to illegally receive subsidies from professional training organizations. Jardiland announced it would bring a defamation suit against France Télévisions, publicly accusing the Cash investigation report of presenting false information. In April 2015 more than a year later, Jardiland withdrew its suit.
* In 2015, Rachida Dati criticized the broadcast for the questions it raised about a possible link between Rachida Dati and the Engie corporation (formerly GDF-Suez).
* In 2015, Élise Lucet took part in a demonstration by the collective named "Informer n’est pas un délit" (Informing is not a crime) against a proposed French law defining trade secrets an amendment to the Loi pour la croissance, l'activité et l'égalité des chances économiques [fr] (Law for growth, activity and equality of economic opportunity), known as the "Loi Macron". She opposed the measure because it would hamper the production of broadcasts like Cash investigation. A book was scheduled for publication in 2015
* After the February 2, 2016 broadcast of Produits chimiques, nos enfants en danger (Chemical products, our children in danger), the Association française pour l'information scientifique (AFIS) (French Association for Scientific Information) issued a press release claiming that the documentary misled viewers. It cited the transformation of the summary of the European Food Safety Authority, which said: "Plus de 97 % des aliments contiennent des résidus de pesticides dans les limites légales dont 54.6% ne contiennent aucun résidu détectable" (More than 97% of foods contain pesticide residues within legal limits; 54.6 of these contain no detectable trace), into "Plus de 97 % des aliments contiennent des résidus de pesticides" (More than 97% of foods contain pesticide residues). Several weeks later AFIS returned to the subject, in a more detailed article, Comment les téléspectateurs ont été abusés par 'Cash Investigation'. The disputed number is cited once at the beginning of the episode.