Benchers Law Firm brought together the best criminal attorneys and defence lawyers for the White-Collar Crime Forum.

While opening the event, the first session moderator Oleh Valendiuk, Managing Partner of Benchers Law Firm, pointed out that entire Ukraine is suffering from the invasion of the Russian Federation, namely the so-called "Russian World", tens of thousands of people have lost their loved ones, hundreds of thousands have lost their homes and property, millions have become refugees. However, during the war, our society was also affected by several corruption scandals and economic crimes involving extortion and budget embezzlement. Unfortunately, the echo of such stories spreads far beyond Ukraine.

The professional discussion of the session "'White-Collar Crime in Wartime' was supported by: Oleksandra YANOVSKA, Judge of the Criminal Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court, Roman VASCHUK, Business Ombudsman of Ukraine, Oleksandr ZHYLA, Deputy Head of the Department for Procedural Management of Pre-trial Investigation and Support of Public Prosecution of the Department for Supervision over Compliance with Laws by Security Bodies of the Prosecutor General's Office, Danylo ZHVALIUK, Acting Deputy Head of the Department for Information Analysis and Risk Management of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine, Oleksandr LYSAK, Partner of EQUITY Serhii LYSENKO, Managing Partner of GRACERS Law Firm.

Read more about Oleh Valendiuk's speech

The event continued with the session "Defence in WCC Proceedings", where Olha Shapovalova, Partner at Benchers Law Firm, focused on the peculiarities of judicial defence in criminal corruption proceedings in absentia through the prism of the European Court of Human Rights practice. "The ECHR has placed several emphases on the specific rights of persons subject to criminal proceedings in absentia and how they can exercise these rights," Olha Shapovalova underlined.

Read more about Olha Shapovalova's speech here.

We are grateful to our partners and organisers for sharing their experience and support in discussing important issues of the day.