Investigations,Complianceand Ethics
Legal support relating to administrative and criminal investigations, the prevention of money laundering, competition compliance and corporate ethics arrangements.
This area covers the administrative and criminal investigations that companies may face, regulatory compliance programmes and internal ethics arrangements. The aim is to identify legal risk in advance and to ensure that processes are conducted lawfully.
Scope
The area of investigations, compliance and ethics addresses three topics together: acting as defence counsel and legal representative in administrative and criminal investigations conducted by public authorities, identifying the compliance obligations to which companies are subject, and establishing internal ethical rules. Criminal investigation and prosecution are governed by Code of Criminal Procedure No. 5271 (CMK) and Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237 (TCK). In the compliance field, the main topics are the prevention of the laundering of proceeds of crime and of the financing of terrorism (Laws No. 5549 and 6415, and Law No. 7262 on the Prevention of the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction), competition law compliance (Law No. 4054), anti-bribery and anti-corruption, and the protection of personal data.
Compliance work is preventive in nature, whereas investigation processes come into play after an incident has occurred. The two areas complement each other: a written compliance structure that is applied in practice helps to demonstrate the measures taken in a possible investigation, while shortcomings revealed in an investigation provide a basis for updating the compliance programme. Criminal liability is personal (TCK Art. 20); security measures and administrative sanctions may, however, be applied to legal entities.
Frequently encountered matters
- Assessment of the rights of suspects, victims and witnesses in criminal investigations.
- Criminal liability of company executives and employees; allegations of bribery, breach of trust, aggravated fraud and bid rigging.
- The offence of laundering proceeds of crime (TCK Art. 282) and investigations concerning financial crimes.
- Obliged parties’ obligations relating to customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting (Law No. 5549 Art. 4) and the appointment of a compliance officer.
- Examination of internal allegations and internal investigation processes.
- Applications against search, seizure and digital evidence measures.
- Requests for information, on-site inspections and defence processes in cases of alleged competition infringements.
- Preparation of ethical rules, whistleblowing mechanisms and compliance policies.
- Monitoring of sanctions lists and asset freezing measures.
Process and points to note
In a criminal investigation, the suspect or accused has the right to the assistance of defence counsel before giving a statement (CMK Arts. 147, 149). During the investigation stage, defence counsel may request to examine the contents of the file and to obtain copies of documents; however, restrictions may be imposed by a judge’s decision where this would jeopardise the purpose of the investigation (CMK Art. 153). Protective measures such as search, seizure and copying of computer systems are subject to certain conditions, and these may be challenged by objection before the criminal judgeship of peace (CMK Art. 268).
In internal investigations, the preservation of evidence, regard for the rights of the persons concerned and compliance with personal data protection principles are required. As regards statements to be taken from employees and devices to be examined, the employee’s personality rights and data protection rules are assessed together.
Compliance programmes are tailored to the company’s field of activity, scale and risks, and are supported by written policies, training, monitoring and record-keeping mechanisms. Suspicious transaction reporting and the related confidentiality obligations are regulated in the law. In investigations by the Competition Authority and other regulatory authorities, the time limits for responding to requests for information and documents and for submitting defences are stated in the relevant letter; as these time limits may be short, the date and content of the letter are examined immediately. The compliance obligation and the status of compliance officer vary according to the nature of the obliged party.
Our office’s approach
In investigation files, the first step is to determine the person’s capacity in the proceedings and the stage the file has reached. In compliance work, the institution’s existing policies and risks are documented, and shortcomings are explained with written recommendations.