PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE
Q&A with Netherlands’ largest business crime law firm
DUTCH firm, Sjöcrona Van Stigt Advocaten, specialises in advising on business crime matters and is the largest firm in the country solely dedicated to advice and litigation in this area. It
has offices in The Hague and Rotterdam, and fields a
team of 20 lawyers, including seven partners, who all
deal exclusively with criminal defence work.
Environmental criminal law is a particular niche
strength and the firm was recently involved in the high
profile ‘Probo Koala’ case, where it was alleged that
waste from that vessel caused multiple deaths in Côte
d’Ivoire. The only criminal trial arising from the
incident took place in the Netherlands, and Sjöcrona
Van Stigt successfully represented Amsterdam Port
Services. The prosecutor appealed against the ruling
and the firm will also be involved in the Court of
Appeals proceedings, which begin in June.
WHITE COLLAR CRIME HAS CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE
CORPORATE AGENDA, WHAT ARE THE MAIN REASONS
BEHIND THAT DEVELOPMENT?
There has been a growing awareness that white collar
crime can happen everywhere and that negligence by
the board may lead to criminal liability. I am sure that
high profile cases in the US, such as Enron, has helped
to create awareness elsewhere – and that includes the
Netherlands. To some extent, this applies even more to
American-owned Dutch subsidiaries.
Furthermore, several business scandals in the
Netherlands led to large criminal cases and substantial
coverage in the financial media. If it turns out that some
sectors, such as real estate, are particularly sensitive to
fraud, compliance to a certain threshold becomes
mandatory.
Most of the companies in the Netherlands that have
a high exposure to environmental law and/or labour
safety laws will sooner or later face an investigation
This year, the possibility of a
fiscal out-of court-settlement will
be replaced by the possibility of a
public prosecutor issuing a fiscal
punishment order. This is
important because the latter will
be an act of prosecution and is
considered to be an admission of
guilt. Therefore, such an order
can negatively influence a
person’s request for a certificate
of good conduct.
that could potentially lead to a fine, or even a criminal
prosecution of the corporate entity or senior ranking
executives. In particular, when accidents happen at
work and employees get injured or even die, such an
investigation can not be taken lightly.
Another relevant factor is that more and more
companies face commercial consequences of criminal
investigations, which often go hand in hand with the
naming and shaming of the company. Even following a
court ruling, the case is usually not over; the
government can refuse to issue necessary permits later
because of an alleged offence in the past, and a bank
can terminate an account because it is concerned about
its reputation when the client’s name is in the
newspaper.
