Business Crime
Advocating for integrity, defending against complexity
The BC WG aims to improve defence practitioners’ knowledge of business crime areas and ECHR safeguards, particularly concerning corruption and confiscation, to ensure effective advice and representation. It also focuses on corporate criminal liability safeguards and advocates for them in EU legislative processes.
Business crime encompasses illegal activities within or against businesses for financial or competitive advantages, undermining economic integrity and public trust.
The BC WG’s purpose is to enhance ECBA members’ skills in advising those facing business crime challenges, providing a platform for information exchange and best practices. Potential outcomes include handbooks.
Key subtopics include corruption/bribery, money laundering, sanctions, and ESG-related issues, reflecting the increasing complexity and regulatory exposure in these areas for both individuals and corporations.
Business Crime | Subgroups
Sanctions
Navigating the escalating complexity and prominence of global sanctions, significantly accelerated by the 2022 Ukraine invasion, demands specialized legal expertise.
Financial Crime & AML
This sub-group aims to boost defence practitioners’ expertise in financial crime, asset confiscation, and anti-money laundering to improve legal advice and uphold criminal justice principles across jurisdictions.
Corruption & Bribery
The UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC) highlights the link between combating corruption and protecting human rights, as noted in reports by the HRC’s Advisory Committee and the UN High Commissioner for HR. Corruption weakens state institutions and the rule of law.
ESG
The expanding global web of ESG-related legislation and regulation, coupled with a growing appetite among regulators and law enforcement agencies to call corporate actors and directors to account for ESG failures, means that both individuals and corporate entities are increasingly facing complex ESG-related challenges and potential criminal and regulatory exposure across multiple jurisdictions.
EPPO
The EPPO Working Group unites European defence lawyers to tackle the legal and practical hurdles of EPPO investigations and prosecutions.
Our goal is to bolster the defence’s role and uphold procedural safeguards in transnational criminal justice. We offer concrete support via expert webinars and provide structured feedback to the EPPO on defence challenges.
Coordinator: Amedeo Barletta
Amedeo Barletta, PhD, has over 20 years’ experience in complex criminal law cases, with multiple jurisdictions implications, advising companies and individuals.
Coordinator: Vladimir Hrle
Vladimir Hrle is a lawyer with 20 years of experience, widely recognised for his work at the intersection of business crime and corporate criminal liability and international human rights law.
Contact: business.crime.wg@ecba.org
If you are an ECBA member interested in joining a working group, please email us, providing a brief outline of your reasons for wanting to join.
Latest Posts
Writing a new Statement on the Directive on Combatting Corruption
Preparing an ECBA follow-up position on the final EU Anti-Corruption Directive, assessing reforms and remaining defence-rights concerns in Europe’s evolving enforcement framework.
EPPO Webinar
The webinar hosts defence lawyers and academics or magistrates that discuss practical issues and experiences regarding EPPO cases from different countries. Their scope is to describe relevant defense issues and to advise the members of the ECBA on how to handle them.
Update of the Country reports on Bribery and Corruption
Revising Country reports on Bribery and Corruption to reflect new laws, case law, and practice, offering defence-focused insights into evolving bribery enforcement across Europe.
Current and future initiatives
The ECBA Business Crime working group is engaged in a variety of current and future initiatives, ranging from legislative monitoring to practical projects supporting defence rights across Europe. Members are warmly invited to join specific projects within this groups, contributing their expertise and shaping the outcomes together.
Writing a new Statement on the Directive on Combatting Corruption
Preparing an ECBA follow-up position on the final EU Anti-Corruption Directive, assessing reforms and remaining defence-rights concerns in Europe’s evolving enforcement framework.
EPPO Webinar
The webinar hosts defence lawyers and academics or magistrates that discuss practical issues and experiences regarding EPPO cases from different countries. Their scope is to describe relevant defense issues and to advise the members of the ECBA on how to handle them.
Update of the Country reports on Bribery and Corruption
Revising Country reports on Bribery and Corruption to reflect new laws, case law, and practice, offering defence-focused insights into evolving bribery enforcement across Europe.