van Berings’ White-Collar Defense and Investigations Team advises and defends corporations and their directors, officers and senior management in a broad range of sensitive criminal and regulatory matters, government investigations, enforcement actions, internal investigations, and white collar criminal prosecutions. van Berings’ experience is uniquely well-suited to handle primary and collateral consequences of government investigations, be it pre-investigation prevention and mitigation, internal investigations or defense of a government investigation, or resolution through settlement or trial.
We regularly conduct internal investigations for companies and their boards and we advise on the development and maintenance of compliance programs, investigations, and civil and criminal enforcement matters and associated civil claims. We also advise on the application of global sanctions, export controls, and national securities regulations - areas of law that change frequently. We assist companies in key areas of regulatory focus, such as money laundering and anti-corruption, including foreign corrupt practices, anti-bribery foreign assets control and international traffic in arms.
Our attorneys of the van Berings’ White-Collar Defense and Investigations Team are respected by enforcement agencies and renowned for their investigative skill, seasoned judgement and consistently clear and persuasive presentation of the facts. They manage to combine a unique understanding of the enforcement landscape with a deep appreciation for Client’s business issues.
Our practice includes advising banks, securities broker-dealers, mutual funds, investment advisors, private equity funds, insurance companies, money services businesses, financial technology companies and other financial services businesses, and multinationals on how to comply with bank secrecy and anti-money laundering regulations.
We assist financial institutions and businesses in developing, enhancing and implementing anti-money laundering compliance programs, including customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence, suspicious activity identification and reporting.
Our attorneys of the van Berings’ White-Collar Defence and Investigations Team also conduct internal investigations and works with members of the litigation team to represent clients in criminal investigations.
We are frequently asked to conduct internal investigations for clients as a means of avoiding major compliance problems or addressing issues raised by government allegations. Some of these investigations are media specific, but most internal investigations are multi-media environmental audits, including:
- Multi-media audit of steel manufacturing facilities;
- Pre-acquisition audits of industrial facilities to assess whether there are significant compliance issues associated with new or continuing operations under new ownership;
- Defense of equipment manufacturer in criminal investigation;
- Defense of specialty chemical manufacturer in criminal investigation; and
- Defense of recycling facility in criminal investigation.
van Berings’ White-Collar Defense and Investigations Team's experience extends to every substantive area of white collar criminal work affecting domestic and foreign institutions and individuals, including:
- Accounting Frauds: representing companies and individuals under investigation or accused of accounting fraud in cases involving breach of fiduciary duty; misuse or misdirection of funds; accounting malpractice and or negligence; payroll fraud; and false estate and trust accounting.
- Antitrust Frauds: representing individuals, corporations, and associations in all phases of criminal antitrust investigations, trials, and appeals involving claims of bid-rigging, price fixing, price discrimination, actual or alleged monopolization, market allocation, or other alleged antitrust violations.
- Business Frauds, Securities Frauds & Market Manipulations: handling a wide range of cases involving allegations of business or securities fraud, including insider trading, stock market manipulation, “pump and dump” schemes, fraudulent or negligent misrepresentations and ”ponzi“ schemes.
- Export Control Frauds: representing clients in export and re-export controls, customs, economic sanctions law, and government contracts matters in multiple regulatory jurisdictions and routinely handling cases involving all aspects of export controls, sanctions and embargo export restrictions including programs intended to monitor and regulate the transfer of goods, technology, software, services, and information to foreign nationals and foreign destinations.
- Foreign Corrupt Practices: handling government inquiries, investigations, and enforcement actions for Clients arising from alleged violations of foreign corrupt practices and anti-bribery or anti-money laundering regulations.
- Government Frauds: representing Clients facing allegations of defective pricing, false statements, or overbilling involving government contracts that have led the government to initiate either civil or criminal fraud proceedings, bribery allegations and violations of export control laws. We have provided fraud defense services for government contractors in administrative hearings and suspension or debarment hearings.
- Tax Frauds: representing individuals, corporations, and other business entities in criminal tax matters, including individuals and corporations with tax compliance issues and the professionals who advise such taxpayers.
- EH&S Frauds: representing directors and corporate officers in a wide array of criminal environmental matters related to major environmental hazards and corporate liability matters in case of violation of Health & Safety regulations and injuries at a work place.
The members of our van Berings’ White-Collar Defense and Investigations Rapid Response Team are ready (24 – 7 - 365) to respond to urgent advice, investigations and defense needs in case of prosecution or enforcement at a moment’s notice, and to manage the potential civil and criminal consequences involved. To enter in direct contact with the head of our White Collar Defense and Investigation Rapid Response Team please click here.