White-collar criminal law
Business life and the actors involved have increasingly become the focus of criminal investigations for years. While compliance is intended to prevent risks, misconduct, and the commission of crimes, and the – alleged – victims are often (financially strong) companies, we as criminal defense lawyers concentrate on the Individual defense of accused, accused persons and of course defendants.
Criminal and administrative offense proceedings that fall under the area of white-collar criminal law are conducted in particular on suspicion of the following offenses:
- Fraud, subsidy fraud, loan fraud, investment fraud
- infidelity
- Corruption offenses: Bribery, accepting and granting of benefits, bribery in commercial transactions
- Insolvency offenses, in particular delaying insolvency pursuant to Section 15a Paragraph 4 of the Insolvency Code and bankruptcy pursuant to Sections 283 et seq. of the Criminal Code
- Labor criminal law
- Money laundering
- Tax criminal law
For these crimes, in the main proceedings – i.e. after the investigation has been concluded and charges have been brought by the public prosecutor – Commercial Criminal Chambers at the Regional Court The defense is often confronted with the introduction of extensive portions of the procedural material in the so-called self-reading procedure, complex shareholding relationships and factual arrangements, as well as allegations that are based almost exclusively on the work of a single investigator.
Particularly in the area of white-collar crime, cross-border cooperation between investigative authorities within Europe and beyond is becoming increasingly intensified. Since 2021, European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Luxembourg, as the European Union's decentralized public prosecutor's office, is entrusted with the prosecution of cross-border crimes against the EU budget. One of the "centers" where Delegated European Public Prosecutors work is located in Hamburg. We have been involved in defending the extensive proceedings resulting from these investigations from the very beginning and, from various proceedings conducted by the EPPO, we know what is important in criminal defense in such cases.