Investigations & White-Collar Crime (incl. FCPA)

Internal investigations (either private or in context of a formal investigation) raise a number of issues, such as data privacy compliance, observance of employment protection rules, addressing issues of reporting known illegal acts to the authorities etc. Furthermore, they frequently require the acting by a large team of specialized lawyers, able to process large amounts of documents within a short period of time.

Moreover, nowadays, multinational corporates face a much higher risk of being investigated or prosecuted at a national, EU or even international level for allegedly fraudulent or corrupt acts committed in the course of their business activities. These may often relate to alleged violations of AML legislation, national and international anti-corruption statutes, tax legislation and so on.

We firmly believe that mitigating the risk that such investigations may pose for our clients – or even avoiding them altogether through vigilant corporate compliance measures and rigorous internal audit, risk assessment / management – can have tremendous value-adding effects on their businesses.

Koutalidis Law Firm’s team of expert lawyers, experienced in national and cross-border investigations, regularly assists corporate clients from a wide range of industry sectors (including the pharmaceutical and consulting services sectors) in achieving successful outcomes in such large-scale investigations. In particular, our team is able to combine experts on the relevant fields involved (e.g. data privacy, employment, AML, experts from the relevant industry etc) with a large team of lawyers that is available on demand to conduct the investigation. Moreover, we maintain a list of specialized Criminal Law specialists that we can propose to our clients, regarding the Criminal Law aspects of the matter.

Services

We develop, review and test anti-corruption and AML corporate compliance measures in light of Greek Law, as well as major long-arm international statutes (e.g. FCPA, UK bribery act). More specifically our services include the following:

Investigations
Undertaking (internal) investigations even on client-group level in collaboration with our international law firm partners.

Employment law issues
Advising on any Employment Law issues that may affect the extent and / or manner of the investigation, assessing and implementing potential measures against involved employees and associates.

Personal data and redaction of documents
Facilitating the collection and export of personal data in compliance with the applicable Data Protection rules (including exporting to the USA). This includes performing document redaction exercises where this is appropriate. Also setting-up in advance data privacy processes (e.g. proper notifications to employees or other parties) that will facilitate a potential future internal investigation.

Risk assessments
Conducting risk assessments (including reputational and regulatory risks) either on specific issues (e.g. specific transactions) or on a wider level (e.g. assessment of policies and of overall compliance regime).

Transactional due diligence
Assessing our clients’ supply chains and conducting transactional and third-party due diligence.

Compliance
Advising on compliance issues and assisting in preparing and implementing a new or an updated compliance plan.

Dawn raids
Assisting in regard to dawn raids, We can be available on call at any time should the need occur.

Representation of clients in investigations
Representing our clients in anti-corruption investigations and enforcement proceedings in Greece (e.g. before SDOE) or abroad (e.g. before the Fraud Section – FCPA Unit of the US DoJ) in collaboration with our international law firm partners (e.g. by providing Greek Law advise and country-specific risk management inputs in negotiating DPAs and other related instruments).

Disputing of sanctions
Challenging any imposed fines or other penalties (e.g. those provided in art. 45 L. 4557/2018) before the imposing administrative authority (e.g. SDOE) and the Greek civil or administrative courts.

Defending of claims by third parties
Competitors may file suits for claims under various grounds, such as unfair competition. We can undertake the handling of such cases and use our expertise on compliance issues in order to minimize the potential exposure.

Collaboration with criminal law specialists
Collaborating with top tier white-collar criminal defense firms in successfully representing our clients before the Greek criminal courts. in this regard, we already have a meticulously maintained list with proposed experts for every subject.

Communication plans
Assisting clients in developing effective (and legally compliant) communications plans mitigating reputational risks.

Representation of affected parties
We may represent third parties (e.g. competitors, whistleblowers) affected by inappropriate behaviours of a market player.

Nikitas Fortsakis
Partner
    +30 210 360 7811
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    nfortsakis@koutalidis.gr






Evangelos Courakis
Partner
    +30 210 360 7811
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    encourakis@koutalidis.gr






George Naskaris
Partner
    +30 210 360 7811
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    gnaskaris@koutalidis.gr