White Collar Crimes

The criminal law aspects of national and international business disputes increase rapidly, whether in case of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, unlawful insider trading, to name a few.  According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the direct damages caused by such crimes to Swiss enterprises approximately amount to between three and five percent of their entire gross income each year.  In Switzerland as well as in its European neighbours, only ten to twenty percent of the cases are brought to justice, for fear of first, loss of reputation and second, unwanted discovery of suspect behaviour followed by criminal charges against, and punishments of, the company itself.  Sometimes the medicine is worse than the disease…  At all costs, an internal investigation by an independent corporate attorney is often the best way to start while discovering criminal inside practices.  Needless to say, WHISTLE-BLOWERS are determinant to uncover cases of white collar crimes and should be duly protected by internal systems and properly rewarded.

Past success

• Collection efforts involving US$ 22 mio. embezzled, namely ‘pirated’, from Russian crude oil traders.