Lawyer Monthly Magazine August 2020 Edition

33 AUG 2020 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM possibilities to recover prejudices caused, you get a comprehensive outlook on an increasingly difficult field of law, where fraud cases can no longer be tackled just by traditional investigative or defence methods and in which legal professionals must be more than astute theoreticians, but also highly skilled practitioners. Do you think prosecutors are prepared for any potential increase in fraud-related files? Law enforcement in Romania, though adequately financed and highly specialised in handling criminality of all types (considering we have specialised sections of the Prosecutors’ Office or dedicated Police structures for corruption, economic criminality, cyber-crimes or money laundering), suffer from the same inertia as always when confronted with new social, economic and technical realities. Though fraud-related crime follows the same patterns as before, the fact that the methods have improved or adapted with the changing times creates delays in official responses and generate time lapses in which perpetrators indulge and build on their undue wealth or status. Will the coronavirus recession prompt an upsurge of fraud cases? The post-COVID-19 international environment is indeed peculiarly challenging for all legal professionals, public enforcement and private attorneys as well, since the area of the white-collar crime has seen a mix of traditional fraud or corruption cases, blended with new types of cyber-crimes and money laundering schemes. Social distancing and indirect communication have determined business people to contact and contract deals mostly without direct (human) contact, which has created the perfect conditions for criminals or malicious business sharks to profit from inexperienced or otherwise unsophisticated business owners that are not accustomed to performing due- diligence of their partners, or are too trustworthy in relation to advancing important amounts of money before services or goods being provided. If you add the otherwise growing cyber- fraud component of criminality in society nowadays, with more and more complex techniques and mechanisms in place to avoid detection or investigation, as well as AN INTERVIEW WITH MĂDĂLIN ENACHE Mădălin Enache speaks to us this month on how white-collar crime and fraud have been impacted during the pandemic. He discusses how a recession can fuel more criminals and the steps businesses should take to avoid being victims of fraud during this uncertain period. Economic crime tends to surge during and following a recession; what should law enforcement do in your jurisdiction to handle this? The general opinion in nowadays Romanian society is that people and businesses alike would feel a lot more protected by law enforcement if their response would be swifter and more decisive (considering the lengthy duration of criminal investigations and trials in Romania), while their actions to be concentrated firstly on ensuring recovery of prejudices created. Furthermore, the increasing public opinion that many high-level criminal cases (corruption or economic frauds) are politically-driven has led to a certain degradation of the general trust in law enforcement, which can only be reverted by a more people/victim-oriented approach to cases and investigations, as opposed to the formal and procedural methodology employed nowadays, with a focus on State interests. How has the government and local authorities in your jurisdiction reacted to criminal law cases being handled during the crisis? What cases are classed as ‘urgent’ and are still being dealt with? Unfortunately, these last few months White-Collar Crime And Fraud In The Time Of COVID-19 The Law Enforcement Response “ The general opinion in nowadays Romanian society is that people and businesses alike would feel a lot more protected by law enforcement if their response would be swifter and more decisive. ”