Łukasz Lasek | In Principle

On 2 September 2022, the Polish Ministry of Justice published a draft of far-reaching changes to the liability of collective entities, which would eliminate the requirement to obtain a predicate ruling for all criminal and fiscal offences for which collective entities could be held criminally liable. We discuss these changes in an updated version of our guide to corporate criminal liability in Poland.

It’s hard to explain to someone who has never been accused of a crime that they cannot use their own money, and this situation could last for months. Nonetheless, an institution exerting this effect functions under Polish law and can impact both individuals and companies.

More and more requests are filed with Polish prosecutors and courts by other countries seeking extradition of wanted persons found in Poland. These persons often are not even aware that they are sought by law enforcement authorities in another country to face criminal charges there or to enforce existing criminal sanctions.

The latest episode of News from Poland is devoted to implementation by Polish companies of sanctions imposed on Russia for its attack on Ukraine. This topic is discussed by Anna Olejniczak-Michalska from the firm’s Private Client practice and Łukasz Lasek from the firm’s Dispute Resolution & Arbitration practice.

Some 70–80 extradition requests are filed every year with the Polish authorities, to turn over persons to stand trial before a foreign court or serve a punishment abroad.

In this episode, Łukasz Lasek explains legal aspects of fighting cybercrime in the form of ransomware and data hacks. What is a ransomware attack? How can businesses protect against it? How do we help businesses after they fall victim to ransomware extortion?

In this episode, Łukasz Lasek explains legal aspects of fighting a type of cybercrime fraud called business email compromise, or BEC. How do the fraudsters work? Why is the number of BEC attacks on smaller businesses increasing? What to do if your email has been compromised? What are the prospects of catching the fraudsters, and how to reduce the number of BEC frauds?

Every day, news outlets around the world report on corporate scandals and investigations, money laundering through shell companies in tax havens, arrests of executives, and multi-million-dollar settlements with prosecutors by big market players. Is this symptomatic of setbacks in the fight with corporate criminality, or is enforcement improving and uncovering more crime?

The EU provides tools for efficient police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. But those instruments may no longer be available to the authorities if there is a hard Brexit.

An interview with Łukasz Lasek and Piotr Golędzinowski from the Dispute Resolution & Arbitration practice on the possibilities of out-of-court dispute resolution, planning in the event of a dispute, and costly traps to avoid.

It is September 2020—hopefully a post-pandemic world. Your company has successfully weathered the storms of crisis, and social and economic life is slowly recovering its previous pace. Most people work at the office again, and you are on your way there. Before arriving at 9 am, you usually stop by the corner coffee place to have a morning espresso and browse the daily news. But at 8:15 am you get a call from the office. It is the receptionist, saying that the company has been approached by agents requesting to inspect the company’s files and computer system. You get to the office and find a few men waiting in black suits. They present a warrant and insist on starting the inspection immediately. It is a dawn raid. And the question is whether you are prepared to handle it.

One of the more serious consequences of the pandemic will be a wave of business litigation. However, strong arguments and credible evidence are not enough to win a dispute. It also takes resources to pursue a lawsuit, and soon that may be particularly difficult to come by.