We have monitored this development closely and regularly advise businesses and employees on cases involving traditional financial crimes such as corruption, breach of financial trust and insider trading. We also have extensive experience of cases concerning unlawful price collusion, pollution and workplace accidents.
We know the law on enterprise penalties
Such cases have in common that they are complex, involve large volumes of documentation and often take a long time to resolve. Additionally, they can cause companies reputational difficulties and impose heavy personal burdens on involved individuals. Moreover, dealing with such cases often places very heavy demands on a company’s resources.
We have one of Norway’s largest and most knowledgeable teams of corporate penalty experts, and therefore offer a unique combination of criminal law and commercial law expertise in areas such as tax, insider dealing and employment. This combination is key to delivering robust and effective assistance to clients.
Integrated assistance
Our lawyers have broad and varied backgrounds and experience, ranging from the prosecuting authorities to operational board work at leading companies. This enables us to consider all sides of cases involving financial crimes, which often also present challenging commercial problems and necessitate media management and dialogue with investigators and the prosecuting authorities.
Selected areas of expertise
We have extensive experience of assisting businesses and individuals under investigation by Norwegian and foreign authorities, particularly the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, for corruption via foreign agents.
We regularly advise businesses and individuals suspected of corruption in Norway. We also advise businesses on the distinction between acceptable hospitality and provision of improper benefits.
We have extensive experience of cases concerning breach of financial trust, typically involving executives suspected of having acted against their company’s interests for personal gain.
The competition authorities have intensified their focus on price collusion between stakeholders in the same industry. The competition authorities are authorised to penalise unlawful price collusion by imposing large fines. We cooperate closely with our competition-law experts in cases involving unlawful price collusion.
Over the years, we have advised companies and individuals suspected of breaching securities legislation – typically provisions related to record-keeping, market manipulation and insider trading. Our criminal law specialists have acted as defence counsel in some of the biggest cases concerning such offences heard by the Norwegian courts in recent years.
Anti-money laundering efforts are more topical than ever. We regularly advise banks and other parties subject to Norwegian money laundering rules. We also act as defence counsel in such cases.
Cases concerning alleged evasion of various direct and indirect taxes range from minor infringements to cases involving substantial sums. We have experience of this entire spectrum, both from acting as defence counsel for individuals and smaller businesses and from advising and defending major companies.
Norway has extensive special criminal legislation intended to secure a satisfactory working environment, safety and protection of shared resources such as nature and the environment. The prosecuting authorities – particularly the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) – are giving higher priority to the prosecution of such cases, and are cooperating closely with relevant supervisory bodies. An increasing proportion of our clients are businesses and individuals suspected of breaching such legislation.
