Corporate crimes

Corporate crime, sometimes called white-collar crime, is broadly defined as the criminal actions of corporations or individuals authorized to act on behalf of a legal entity. This group includes executives (members of the board of directors of companies, directors of a division or department, managers of the company’s organizational units) and any employee authorized to act on behalf of a company or corporation.

Examples of corporate crimes include, but are not limited to: fraud, financial malfeasance, corruption, stock market manipulation, environmental crimes, unreliability in keeping company financial records and collusive bidding. The consequence of their occurrence is not only to expose the corporation or company to criminal liability, but also to material and image damage, which as a consequence can permanently affect the inability to continue doing business.

Despite the introduction of systemic changes and the improvement of criminal compliance mechanisms by companies to prevent fraud, the scale of corporate crime is not decreasing. Growing police statistics indicate that possible irregularities are being detected more effectively and on a larger scale. Significantly, the Polish legislator is working on the statutory implementation of the EU’s whistleblower protection directive, under which a group of business entities will be required to create a systemic reporting channel for whistleblowers. This will certainly involve an increase in the detection rate of corporate crime.

The key to running a responsible business is transparency, honesty and consistency in building an ethical work environment. Therefore, understanding the needs of our clients and meeting them, we act not only in crisis situations, but also at every stage of business operations and we support the organization in creating a full system of protection against the occurrence of any fraud and irregularities, i.e. corporate crime. Our activities in this aspect are commonly referred to as criminal compliance.

In the field of corporate crime, including corruption crimes and so-called white-collar crime, our law firm offers:

• identification of risks of corporate crime and fraud;
• full implementation of criminal compliance – internal regulations to protect the organization from the occurrence of corporate crimes;
• training in legal procedures and regulations, aimed at protecting the interests of the company or corporation and preventing the occurrence of fraud and events that expose the organization to damage or liability;
• conducting inquiries, internal investigations and audits culminating in a final report to prepare the organization for follow-up activities;
• handling internal reporting channels for whistleblowers;
• drafting legal opinions to enable corporate decision-making;
• management of crisis situations related to the identification of a corporate crime, including the preparation of recommendations for action strategies;
• legal support of criminal proceedings, including drafting of criminal notices and representation before public institutions, offices, law enforcement agencies and courts at any stage of judicial or administrative proceedings;
• support in matters related to the protection of the company’s reputation based on cooperation with reputable Polish PR agencies.

Our offer is directed to:

• members of bodies of commercial companies;
• entrepreneurs exposed to the occurrence of corporate crimes in their structures;
• whistleblowers;
• capital groups;
• individuals operating at the interface between business and public authorities.