WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 65 When dealing with complex cases of whitecollar crime, what are the key challenges in gathering evidence and proving wrongdoing? How do you overcome these obstacles in Swiss and international contexts? Proving wrongdoing in financial crimes is often complex, as economic transactions may need to be analyzed through multiple corporate levels and across different jurisdictions. The smart layering of funds and the reintroduction of illicit assets make proving nefarious intentions and money flows time-consuming, and often dependent on overseas assistance. Perpetrators are typically intelligent, wellorganized, and wary of detection, leaving few to no paper or electronic trails and often working through legal fronts and proxies. As noted above, in Switzerland, victims of white-collar crime can benefit procedurally from their status as civil complainants in criminal proceedings, if they choose to participate in the criminal investigation (and ensuing trial) in such a role. Recognized as parties brought against private individuals, with large corporations distancing themselves from managers and board members once they discover their involvement in illegal activities. In this wake, the instruments available to the prosecution authorities and the courts under Swiss criminal law, as well as those available to private litigants who have become victims of crime, particularly financial wrongdoing, have come into focus. So-called adhesion claims (i.e., private damages claims brought by victims within the criminal proceedings) provide private parties with significant leverage against perpetrators in corruption cases. Victims are able to take part in the criminal investigation, gain access to the case file, inspect records, request evidence to be taken (even in relation to damages), and seek damages (in addition to a criminal conviction) from the accused in the same proceedings, without the need to initiate separate civil damages proceedings. This trend has led to companies strengthening their compliance rules and provisions on conflicts of interest, requiring more transparency from upper management. Such endeavors should positively impact enforcement efforts, as the transgression of such rules may indicate wrongdoing and malicious intent by the accused parties. In Switzerland, victims of whitecollar crime can gain significant leverage by participating as civil complainants in criminal proceedings.
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