How to defend oneself from illegal banking solicitation?

Our client's challenge

Cooperating while avoiding liability

Eager to provide the answers to the questions to demonstrate their cooperation and to avoid encouraging an intensification of the investigative measures, our clients still want to avoid participating in their incrimination and putting themselves at risk of being held liable.

In this case, our client was suspected of having committed illegal solicitation in the context of his past functions within a Swiss banking institution. He was concerned that he would be caught between the necessary cooperation required for his own defense and the possible incrimination of his former employer on the basis of his statements. He therefore wanted a detailed legal analysis of the facts he had to report in order to understand their possible judicial consequences.

In the same way, the client questioned the extent to which he was allowed to answer questions relating to his activity, as he was subject to banking secrecy in Switzerland.

Our way

To respond to our clients' inquiries and prepare their defense strategy

We accompany our clients throughout criminal proceedings, providing them with explanations regarding the past and future steps of the process and helping them to prepare themselves to deal with these steps in the best possible way. We strive to provide answers to all the queries they might have so that they are best equipped to be actors of their defense. We also provide an overview of each constitutive element of the alleged offence and detail all the strong and weak aspects of the defence strategy considered.

In addition to the work carried out regarding the technical aspects of the offences and the steps of the procedure, we also take into account the specific characteristics that may exist in cross-border procedures, such as the existence of national blocking statutes for example, or specific conceptions and definitions of the notion of professional secrecy.

In order to do so, we can rely on our network of foreign colleagues who are specialized in the fields in which we work and who can provide us with their legal analysis of local law.

Thus, we were able to justify in the present case the existence of the blocking statute and bank secrecy preventing or limiting the answers of our client during his hearing, thus preserving him from any risk of commitment.