In a 2000 report co-authored with Arnaud Montebourg, Peillon alleged that Monaco had lax policies with respect to money laundering, including within its famed casino, and that the government of Monaco had been placing political pressure on the judiciary, so that alleged crimes were not properly investigated. In a move to counter efforts by former Socialist Finance Ministers Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn to recast the Socialist Party as centrist and market-friendly, Peillon joined Montebourg and Julien Dray in 2002 in writing an article for the newspaper "Libération", saying the Socialists faced a "crisis of confidence" under its chairman François Hollande. In a clear challenge to the party's free-market wing, the three called on Socialists to "fight more effectively and resolutely against the ferocity of the new capitalism and the excesses of deregulation."