Expertise

Combatting fraud

Through a succession of cases, our firm has developed considerable experience in combatting fraud, especially fraud involving companies or offshore foundations registered in countries that, to a greater or lesser degree, may be regarded as “exotic”. Fraud is often practiced in civil matters, where the perpetrator of the fraud attempts, for example, to disinherit one or more of his children or his wife in joint estate. However, our involvement in this kind of case is not limited to attacking the perpetrator(s) of the fraud or their accomplices. On the contrary, we also support Professionals of the Financial Sector (PFS) in aiding them to disengage themselves from problematic structures. Finally, in a particular case, we represented a foreign foundation, created in Luxembourg by a person who had then deceased, in order to integrate in an appropriate manner the assets of that foundation into the Luxembourg inheritance settlement provisions, in the knowledge that such provisions do not (yet?) take cognisance of foundations  as an instrument for making donations.

Our practice has also developed important knowhow in the field of fraud connected with the Internet and information technology. We assist clients who have been victims of identity theft on social media networks or, more generally, on the Internet. In this kind of situation, our aid is not limited to registering complaints with the prosecution authorities. In practice, we also support our clients to take pragmatic steps, which are sometimes more effective in the short term.

Moreover, we provide advice to clients who have been the victim of a ”fraude au president” (cf. an internal funds transfer fraud perpetrated by someone impersonating a top manager) or of attempted fraud. Within the territory of Luxembourg, our approach does not only result in the filing of criminal complaints, but also in the support of internal measures to be taken. Moreover, thanks to our foreign colleagues in the International Lawyer’s Network (ILN), we can with our clients establish an international strategy enabling them to take action in the countries to which  the funds were destined (e.g. China or Hungary).

Once again, by way of example, our firm has on several occasions assisted Luxembourg enterprises that  had fallen victim to IT attacks, whether internal or external, leading  to a misdirection of clients or, in some cases, to a misappropriation of know-how or source code. We also advise our clients on the setting up of private IT enquiry methods in the event of suspected attacks.