White-collar crime lawyers in Argentina: prevention, investigation and defence

Raskovsky y Asociados advises companies and their executives on business criminal law at the three moments when the risk materialises: before, while it can still be prevented; during, when something surfaces that has to be investigated internally; and after, once a criminal file already exists.

This is an area where the most expensive mistake is treating the first stage as optional. A company that arrives with no programme, no reporting channel and no documentation of its controls has fewer tools to offer at the moment it actually needs them.

Law 27,401 changed the starting point

Until it was passed, criminal exposure in the corporate world concentrated on individuals. Law 27,401 established the criminal liability of legal entities for certain offences connected with public administration, with sanctions that go well beyond fines: suspension of activities, loss of state benefits and debarment from contracting with the State.

What matters for day-to-day operations is that the statute attaches concrete effects to having an adequate compliance programme and, in certain cases, to self-reporting and cooperation. In other words: what the company did before the event has legal consequences after it. For companies that contract with the State, moreover, having the programme is no longer an internal policy choice.

What a compliance programme actually looks at

A programme that works is not a generic document downloaded from the internet: it is a system built on the real risks of that company, that sector and that operation. The components we work on:

• Risk assessment by process, area and point of contact with the public sector
• Code of ethics and specific policies on gifts, travel expenses, donations and procurement
• Third-party due diligence: suppliers, agents, intermediaries and local partners
• A reporting channel with real protection for whoever reports, and a case-handling protocol
• Effective training for middle management, which is where the decisions that later matter are taken
• Records and traceability: the evidence that the controls worked

That last point is the most neglected. A control that exists but leaves no documentary trail is, for the purposes of a defence, a control that never existed.

Internal investigations: how to do them properly

When a report or an indication appears, the company faces a delicate decision: investigating properly without destroying evidence, without infringing the rights of those involved and without creating new liabilities along the way.

We work with rules defined before starting: scope of the investigation, who conducts it, how digital information is preserved, how interviews are documented and what is done with the outcome. An improvised exercise usually ends with contaminated evidence, an employee with a legitimate claim and a company in a worse position than at the start.

Defence of the company and of its executives

Once the case is open, the first technical task is to determine whether the interests of the company and those of the individuals involved coincide. Often they do not, and noticing it late compromises both defences. With that settled, the strategy is built on the file and on the internal documentation available.

We act in cases involving offences against public administration, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, tax and social security offences, and on the anti-money laundering front, both in complying with reporting-entity obligations before the UIF and in responding to information requests. Where a parallel administrative dispute is under way —typically a tax matter— coordinating the two is a central part of the work.

When the company is the victim

A good share of our work is not defensive. A company that discovers internal misconduct has to decide quickly and with judgement:

• Whether to report immediately or to complete the internal investigation first
• How to secure the digital evidence before the person involved notices
• What employment measures can be taken without compromising the criminal case
• How to file as a private prosecutor in order to keep real control of the proceeding
• What routes exist to recover the asset, which is usually the real objective

The order of those decisions matters more than it seems: a hurried dismissal or a poorly prepared complaint can leave the company without evidence and without recovery.

Why choose us for corporate criminal matters

The case is handled by a partner, with strict confidentiality and direct contact. In white-collar matters that is a condition of the service, not a preference: the work involves sensitive information, people inside the organisation itself and decisions taken within hours. We coordinate with the in-house legal team and with the accounting teams where the tax or corporate front is open in parallel. We work in English with foreign parent companies and their compliance teams.