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Corporate criminal law
Understanding the company. Mapping its risks. Building its defence.
Corporate criminal law is not limited to white-collar crime. It runs through every aspect of a company’s activity: governance, tax, the environment, employment relations, data, site safety, public procurement, financial difficulties and relations with its partners.
A company may be prosecuted for pollution, a workplace accident, corruption, tax fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy or a breach of technical regulations. It may also be the victim of fraud, breach of trust or the theft of strategic data by a competitor, a service provider or a former employee.
Finally, it may face a more ambiguous situation: a victim at the outset, but questioned about its own practices during the investigation.
In each of these situations, criminal law is never an isolated issue. It simultaneously engages the liability of the legal entity, that of its directors or delegates, business continuity, the company’s reputation and, sometimes, its very existence.
That is why we prefer to speak of corporate criminal law: a broader approach that covers all the criminal risks that may arise from a company’s activity or affect it.
Corporate criminal law is first and foremost a matter for criminal lawyers
Criminal law as applied to companies borrows from company law, tax law, employment law, environmental law and public law. But when a search begins, a director is summoned, police custody is ordered or a criminal seizure threatens the company’s cash flow, the nature of the case changes.
It becomes criminal.
It is then necessary not only to know the offences, but also to master evidence, procedure, grounds for nullity, limitation periods, seizures and confiscations, interviews, expert evidence, the judicial investigation and the trial.
The first hours are often decisive. An imprecise statement, a document handed over without analysis, a divergence between the interests of the company and those of its director, or poorly managed communication can shape the proceedings for a long time.
Our conviction is simple: corporate criminal law is a criminal lawyer’s job. A job that requires procedural reflexes, courtroom experience and the ability to build a strategy from the very first steps of the investigation.
A company cannot be defended without being understood
A legal entity is not just a certificate of incorporation, an organisation chart or a set of internal procedures.
It has a trade, a history, a real organisation, regulatory constraints, decision-making channels and a culture of its own. Responsibilities are not exercised in the same way in an industrial group, a family business, an establishment open to the public, a technology company or a business operating several sites.
Before proposing a risk map, an audit, training, an internal investigation or a defence, we therefore seek to understand:
- the business model and sector of activity;
- the legal and operational organisation;
- decision-making processes and the flow of information;
- the responsibilities actually exercised;
- delegations of authority and the resources allocated;
- the constraints specific to each site, trade and territory;
- relations with employees, subcontractors, customers and regulators;
- how the company actually reacts when an incident occurs.
This knowledge is not a peripheral stage of our work. It is its starting point.
No criminal risk exists in a vacuum
Environmental criminal law is not approached in the same way depending on whether the company operates an industrial facility, a construction site, a transport network or a tourist site. Accidental pollution, poor waste management, an unlawful discharge or harm to a protected species cannot be analysed without understanding the processes, the permits, the maintenance chain and operational responsibilities.
In tax matters, a prosecution for tax fraud or laundering the proceeds of tax fraud requires reconstructing the flows, the accounting choices, the approval channels and the exact role of advisers and directors.
When a company is in financial difficulty, the risk of fraudulent bankruptcy cannot be assessed without going back over the date of insolvency, the keeping of the accounts, cash-flow decisions, the continuation of business and the conditions under which certain debts or assets were dealt with.
When a customer file, source code, a confidential study or commercial data is taken by a former employee or used by a competitor, the criminal classification depends as much on the nature of the information as on the conditions in which it was provided, kept, copied or misappropriated.
There is therefore no standard criminal defence. There are facts, an organisation and a procedure that must be put into perspective.
A technical and fast-moving field
Recent case law shows the extent to which a company’s criminal risk goes beyond simply reading the definition of an offence.
Under certain conditions, criminal liability may follow a merger by absorption. Information disclosed during an acquisition audit may constitute intangible property capable of being the subject of a breach of trust. In money-laundering cases, the way in which flows are structured may give rise to a presumption as to their origin. In a company in difficulty, certain conduct that fraudulently increased its liabilities may be classified as fraudulent bankruptcy.
These decisions require simultaneous reasoning on the legal classification of the facts, the organisation of the company, the attribution of responsibilities, the rules of evidence and the economic consequences of the proceedings.
Technical expertise does not consist in piling up references. It consists in identifying the one that can change the outcome of the case.
The main criminal risks facing companies
We act in particular in cases involving:
- the criminal liability of the legal entity and its directors;
- misuse of corporate assets, breach of trust, fraud, theft, handling and misappropriation;
- the theft or use of strategic data, customer files and confidential information;
- corruption, influence peddling, favouritism and breaches of probity;
- tax fraud, laundering the proceeds of tax fraud and asset seizures;
- fraudulent bankruptcy and offences likely to come to light in receivership or liquidation proceedings;
- pollution, unlawful waste management and other environmental offences;
- workplace accidents, breaches of safety rules and unintentional offences;
- harassment, discrimination and other criminal risks linked to employment relations;
- offences committed against the company by an employee, director, service provider, partner or competitor.
We act when the company is prosecuted, but also when it is the victim and needs to preserve evidence, file a complaint, identify those responsible and obtain compensation.
Prevention without a ready-made template
Criminal risk prevention should not be designed as a pile of procedures intended to fill a compliance file.
A useful risk map must start from the company’s actual activity. A delegation of authority must match the responsibilities actually exercised. Training must confront teams with situations they may really encounter. A crisis protocol must be usable on the day of a search, an accident or an inspection, and not merely read in a meeting room.
We therefore assist companies with:
- mapping their criminal risks;
- analysing delegations of authority and lines of responsibility;
- preparing protocols for searches, accidents and inspections;
- training directors, site managers and operational teams;
- conducting targeted audits;
- preserving evidence and data;
- organising crisis management exercises.
The aim is not to promise the absence of risk. It is to enable the company to identify it, reduce it and respond to it methodically.
Investigating with precision
An internal report, a suspicion of fraud, an environmental alert or the discovery of a data leak may make an internal investigation necessary.
Here again, no method can be applied mechanically. The scope of the investigation, the retention of data, the order of interviews, the role of the various departments, the rights of the people interviewed and the reporting arrangements must be defined according to the risk identified and the culture of the organisation.
An investigation that is too narrow may leave a major problem unresolved. A disproportionate investigation may destabilise the company, undermine working relationships or produce documents liable to be misinterpreted in subsequent proceedings.
We design each investigation with its possible use in court in mind, and taking into account the sometimes divergent interests of the company, its directors and its employees.
Defending the company without losing sight of its business
Our involvement may begin before any proceedings, during an audit or following an alert, or in the urgency of a search, an interview, police custody or an accident.
We assist companies and their directors before investigative services, administrative authorities, the public prosecutor, the investigating judge and the trial courts.
Defence is not just about responding to an accusation. It must also weigh the effects of each decision on governance, employees, financial partners, customers, regulators and the company’s reputation.
Where the case so requires, we work with lawyers specialising in tax, employment, public or company law, as well as with technical, financial and scientific experts. Each brings their own expertise. The criminal lawyer retains control of the criminal strategy, the procedure and the defence.
Curiosity as a defence method
Defending a company means getting inside how it works. Visiting a site. Understanding an industrial process. Reading an email chain in its context. Reconstructing an approval circuit. Identifying who really had the information, the authority and the means to act.
This curiosity is a professional discipline.
It avoids forcing abstract reasoning onto an organisation. It makes it possible to distinguish between an offence, a mistake, a collective malfunction or a risk inherent in an activity that was nevertheless seriously organised.
Our role is to combine this knowledge of the company with the technique of criminal law, in order to build a defence that reflects it and withstands the test of the proceedings.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between white-collar criminal law and corporate criminal law?
White-collar criminal law mainly refers to offences committed in economic life: misuse of corporate assets, corruption, fraud, money laundering or tax fraud. Corporate criminal law takes a broader approach. It covers all the criminal risks that may arise from the company’s activity, particularly in employment, environmental, tax, industrial or digital matters.
Can the company and its director be prosecuted at the same time?
Yes. The criminal liability of the legal entity does not exclude that of individuals. Their defences should not, however, be artificially merged: their interests may be shared, distinct, or become conflicting during the proceedings.
When should a criminal lawyer be instructed?
As soon as a serious risk arises: an internal report, an accident, an inspection, an unusual request from an investigator, a summons, a suspicion of fraud, pollution or a data leak. Early involvement makes it possible to preserve evidence, identify responsibilities and avoid irreversible decisions.
Is a risk map or compliance programme enough to protect the company?
No. These tools are useful if they reflect the company’s actual activity, are regularly updated and have real resources. A generic document or a system ignored by staff may, on the contrary, reveal the gap between the organisation on paper and actual practice.
Can the company have an internal investigation carried out by its lawyer?
Yes. The lawyer can define a protocol, conduct interviews, analyse documents and present conclusions. The terms of the investigation must be adapted to its purpose, to the rights of the people concerned and to the possibility of legal proceedings.
Does the firm act when the company is the victim?
Yes. We assist companies that are victims of fraud, scams, breach of trust, data theft, misappropriation or attacks on their reputation. We support them in preserving evidence, filing a complaint, during the judicial investigation and in obtaining compensation for their loss.
Is your company facing a criminal risk?
Vouland Avocats assists companies, their directors and their site managers in anticipating, analysing and defending their criminal risks.
We act in prevention, during the first stages of an investigation and before the criminal courts, in Marseille, Paris and throughout France.
Understand before advising. Anticipate rather than suffer. Defend when proceedings begin.