Fraud cases often go hand in hand with related criminal offences. This includes, inter alia, forgery of documents, participation in a criminal organisation, and money laundering, but also criminal offences like embezzlement, corruption, forgery of documents, swindle, customs offences, and, for instance, a violation of the Dutch Sanctions Act. These criminal offences are charged alongside tax fraud, but are also regularly charged separately.
In addition to the FIOD investigations, similar investigations can be conducted by, for instance, DNB, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), the Dutch Financial Supervision Office (BFT), the Inspectorate for Social Affairs and Employment, and the POSS Team. In some instances, investigations are conducted in parallel.
There is usually question of long-term investigations. The Office of the Public Prosecutor is ever more often pursuing an active press policy in these cases. The media attention resulting from this usually brings about considerable damages to the relevant businesses and private individuals. The said media attention can also result in other issues, e.g. the termination of the bank relationship by the bank or the termination of financing, or problems can occur with, for instance, permit applications (Dutch Public Administration (Probity Screening) Act).
Knowledge and experience in the area of these financial economic offences is important for a proper defence, but it is also important to signal the risks across the board at an early stage so that it is possible to anticipate this. Our attorneys-at-law follow the developments closely and consequently dispose of broad expertise in these areas.
