• White-Collar Crime

    Our team brings together highly experienced lawyers with in-depth expertise in economic and financial crime.

    Team members

White-Collar Crime

Our team brings together highly experienced lawyers with in-depth expertise in economic and financial crime.

Through continuous training and hands-on experience with complex, high-stakes matters, we advise and represent clients to the highest professional standards.

We are particularly active in highly regulated sectors, including banking and financial services, where compliance obligations are stringent and exposure to white-collar crime risks is significant. Our work covers all major compliance areas, including anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, anti-corruption, and market manipulation.

Several members of our team are regularly appointed by cantonal and federal authorities to conduct investigations involving financial institutions and pension funds. We are also mandated as CDB Investigating Officers by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA). The sophistication and sensitivity of the matters we handle position our firm among the leading Swiss players in white-collar crime.

We represent clients before Swiss criminal, administrative, and regulatory authorities in proceedings related to white-collar crime. Our practice also extends to international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, including cross-border cooperation, information exchanges, assistance requests, and asset recovery.

We assist clients in civil discovery proceedings that may give rise to or reveal criminal exposure, and we defend their interests in asset freezing, confiscation, and restitution proceedings.

Our team has extensive experience conducting internal investigations, both preventive and in connection with Swiss and foreign criminal, administrative, or civil proceedings. These investigations involve matters such as money laundering, corruption, cross-border tax fraud, and market manipulation.

We advise on evidence gathering and data transfers under Swiss law and support clients in implementing procedural steps in Switzerland at the request of foreign authorities.

Beyond investigations and litigation, we guide clients through corrective and organizational measures, including the enhancement of internal controls, procedures, and codes of conduct. We also design and implement tailor-made compliance programs, covering AML frameworks, anti-corruption policies, and sanctions management.

We regularly advise boards of directors and senior management on strategic decision-making in situations involving criminal risk, as well as on regulatory or criminal self-reporting, both in Switzerland and abroad (including proceedings involving the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, FINMA, SBA, SECO, OFAC, and the U.S. Department of Justice).

Criminal Defense & Representation

  • Representation of banks, financial institutions, trading companies, holdings, and Swiss or multinational groups in criminal, administrative, and regulatory proceedings related to white-collar crime
  • Advice and representation in international mutual legal assistance proceedings (cross-border cooperation, information exchange, assistance requests, asset recovery)
  • Representation in asset freezing, confiscation, and recovery proceedings
  • Support for executives and employees in internal investigations and individual criminal proceedings
  • Assistance in the context of letters rogatory and evidence gathering in Switzerland

Internal Investigations

  • Conduct of internal investigations in cases of suspected fraud, money laundering, or corruption
  • Organization and supervision of evidence collection in Switzerland and internationally (documents, emails, IT data, internal audits, digital forensics, interviews, e-discovery)
  • Analysis of findings and preparation of reports for executive management and boards of directors
  • Advice on data protection and data transfer issues in criminal, civil, administrative, and discovery proceedings
  • Recommendations on post-investigation remedial measures (internal controls, procedures, codes of conduct, internal sanctions)

Compliance, Prevention & Internal Frameworks

  • Design, implementation, and assessment of tailored compliance programs for banking and financial sector clients (AML, anti-corruption, conflicts of interest, corporate conduct, due diligence)
  • Drafting of codes of conduct, internal policies, and compliance procedures
  • Training for boards, executives, and employees on compliance, ethics, legal obligations, criminal exposure, and white-collar crime prevention

Publications

Use of frozen Russian assets: what will Europe decide?

The issue of Russian assets was discussed again on Thursday 18 December at a European summit in Brussels. Leaders finally decided overnight not to use frozen Russian assets, as they were unable to reach agreement on this unprecedented solution.

Churning: practical guidelines for portfolio managers

Churning has been in the news following a ruling in a criminal case rendered by the Swiss Supreme Court in 2024. In this ruling, our High Court established objective criteria for determining the existence of churning.

AMLA and criminal liability of companies in cases of money laundering

Since its introduction into Swiss law on 1 October 2003, corporate criminal liability has given rise to little published case law, making its application uncertain.

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