Expertise
A criminal defence that also understands the accounting and tax issues in the file.
In a few words
Economic crime cases turn on accounting records, financial flows and tax returns.
Understanding them is essential to building a defence. David Agerba combines training in tax law and commercial accounting with criminal law practice.
Our approach
In economic crime cases, the charge rarely rests on witness evidence: it rests on accounting records, contracts and financial flows. We analyse these documents ourselves, to check what they really prove and to build a defence on facts.
For a business that has suffered loss, we reconstruct the facts, quantify the damage and file a documented complaint. Where possible, we request the seizure of assets to preserve the chances of recovering them.
In Neuchâtel, these cases are investigated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Complex cases with an intercantonal or international dimension may fall to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland. In tax matters, tax evasion is prosecuted by the tax authority, while tax fraud is a matter for the criminal courts.
Who for
Criminal mismanagement, forgery, bankruptcy or tax offences: we build the defence by analysing the accounts and financial flows at issue.
Embezzlement by an employee, fraud by a partner, bribery: we document the loss, file a complaint and seek to recover the assets.
What we handle
Property offences, corruption, bankruptcy offences, tax criminal law.
What is at stake
The same matter can lead at the same time to a criminal investigation, a tax audit and a civil claim. What is said in one can be used in another: the strategy must be coordinated.
Bank accounts and assets can be frozen from the start of an investigation, sometimes for long periods. The freeze can be challenged and its scope discussed, so that a business can keep operating.
A company can itself be punished when an offence committed within it cannot be attributed to a specific person because of poor organisation, or when it failed to take the measures needed to prevent certain offences, such as bribery.
Law and tax
Tax evasion, tax fraud, supplementary assessments: these cases require command of both criminal procedure and tax law. David Agerba’s training in tax law and commercial accounting applies directly here.
Get in touch
A question, a dispute, a decision to challenge? Describe your situation in a few lines: we will reply by email or call you back, whichever you prefer.
+41 32 354 35 40Monday to Friday, 8:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:30
