White-Collar Crime

Our multifaceted team is uniquely placed to advise on a plethora of white-collar issues, and regularly represents clients in some of the largest anti-corruption matters in the country.

The partners in the firm’s White-Collar Crime practice represent clients in high-profile matters, such as bribery, corruption, conflict of interest, financial statements fraud, Multilateral Development Bank sanctions, and other irregularities with consequences in the contractual, criminal law, and public law spheres.

Our team, comprising lawyers, forensic accountants, forensic technology experts, corporate intelligence specialists, certified fraud examiners, and corporate secretarial professionals, is uniquely positioned to provide the entire gamut of forensic investigation services, including forensic accounting and forensic technology services. Our experts have far-reaching experience in advising on and conducting internal and regulatory investigations across the globe, covering complex internal and cross-border investigations into inter alia, financial statements frauds, bribery and corruption, kickbacks, vendor fraud, concerns such as workplace misconduct and other behavioural issues at the workplace, data theft, etc. They are extensively involved in investigations with a regulatory interface as well, including those relating to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act (UKBA), the Indian Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and the World Bank’s and other multi-lateral development banks’ funded projects in addition to conducting anti-bribery and anti-corruption and governance due diligence in M&A transactions.

In addition to a commercially sound approach, our clients value the mature and refined strategies we devise, which are vital to handling sensitive and politically charged matters. We are well equipped to advise on and conduct the volume of litigation that such matters generally entail, across diverse forums, including arbitration.

The team regularly advises the audit committees and boards of clients’ companies on an array of pre-and post-investigation strategies. Among these are compliance program benchmarking, overhauling compliance programs and conducting training as per industry and regulatory best practices (vis-à-vis multi-lateral development banks, the FCPA, and the UKBA). The services offered include legal advisory on potential offences under Indian law, integrity checks, and field intelligence services.

Our clients include majors in industries such as construction, automobile, information technology, banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, alcoholic beverages, manufacturing, and equity funds.

Here are some of the areas we have advised on:

Internal and Regulatory Investigations

Investigation at an Indian subsidiary of a French global engineering consulting company, into the issues of fraud, corruption, and other sanctionable practices of the World Bank
FCPA investigation of allegations of payment of bribes by a large Indian construction company on behalf of its US-based client
Investigation at an Indian subsidiary of a US-based global automotive components company on issues of misappropriation, bribery, conflict of interest, accounting records falsification, and kickbacks
Investigation of allegations of insider trading by an employee of a leading fund manager of an Indian stock-broking company
Internal investigation at an Indian subsidiary of a US-based global medical devices company in response to allegations of illegal payments by healthcare providers
Investigation of manipulation of financial statements by the CEO of the Indian subsidiary of a Japanese software company
Investigation of capital expenditure of a Germany-based global pharmaceutical company in India on allegations of mismanagement in procurement
Compliance monitorship of a major EPC and O&M company, pursuant to debarment sanction by the World Bank