The practical experience of both defence and investigative work allows our lawyers to be one step ahead of procedural opponents and effectively deal with the specific “permissiveness” of the investigation and mistakes of those who enforce the law.
Our practice of white-collar defence was established in 2007. The defence in criminal matters within the firm is provided by former employees of the Prosecutor's Office (The State Attorney) and the Investigative Committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
The Head of the practice is Dmitry Nikolaev, who is one of the leading lawyers in the field with more than 20 years of experience in advocacy, as well as with more than 15 years of experience in investigating economic crimes.
The practice has gained recognition among peers and is very popular among clients due to its high effectiveness.
The lawyers of the firm provide their support at all stages of criminal court proceedings, as well as during the investigations. In addition to direct criminal defence, we can assist in assessing the situation and developing a defence strategy.
Our specialization is criminal cases of economic and official crimes character, as well as crimes of a corruption nature, such as:
- criminal fraud;
- abuse of authority;
- misuse of budget funds;
- receiving and giving a bribe;
- official forgery;
- criminal negligence;
- obstruction of legitimate business or other activities;
- registration of illegal transactions with real estate;
- illegal business activities;
- illegal banking activities;
- falsification of financial documents of accounting and reporting of a financial organization;
- legalization (laundering) of cash or other property acquired as a result of a crime;
- illegal obtaining a loan or credit;
- malicious evasion of repayment of accounts payable;
- abuse of securities issuance;
- customs evasion;
- illegal actions in bankruptcy;
- intentional or fictitious bankruptcy;
- tax evasion;
- abuse in the procurement of goods, work, services to meet state or municipal needs.
In practice, our law firm repeatedly encountered situations related to defence in cases where bilateral treaties on legal assistance in criminal cases (including extradition requests) were subject to application.
We traditionally provide criminal defence to foreign citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as help Russian citizens in criminal cases abroad, and represent our clients in the European Court of Human Rights. Our English-speaking experts are ready to provide operational support during detention, search or interrogation.
Below are the examples of successful defence that our lawyers carried out recently:
- Defence of the CEO of a large construction company on charges of fraud involving intentional non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, organization of a criminal community, laundering of money acquired by other persons by criminal means. The sanction for the alleged acts provided for punishment up to 15 years in prison. As a result of successful defence, the punishment was reduced to 2 years in prison.
- Defence of the Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Department of Internal Affairs of the largest city agglomeration in the Moscow Region on charges of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (Paragraph 3 of Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and committing an accident that resulted in the death of two or more persons. As a result of the successful defence, the charge under the first paragraph was changed in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which led to a reduction in sanction from 7 years to 8 months in prison. The criminal prosecution of the second paragraph of the indictment was terminated as a result of the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.
- Effective defence of the Head of the Council of one of the Moscow Districts, accused under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in four episodes related to receiving a large bribe (the punishment is up to 12 years in prison) and 4 episodes related to receiving a significant bribe (up to 6 years in prison).
Bolshaya Polyanka Str., 7/10, bld. 1, 119180, Moscow, Russia