Conference programme

Sports competition manipulation has become a key challenge in today's sports world, undermining the integrity and credibility of competition and compromising the very essence of sport which is built on fair play and honest competition. Sport manipulation can take various forms and is often linked to criminal activities such as fraud and money laundering. In recent years, online sports betting has raised concerns about its potential impact on competition manipulation.

This not only jeopardises the reputation of sports and the athletes involved, but also has significant economic implications, affecting sponsors, bettors and sports organisations. The panel brings together leading sports compliance professionals to discuss insights and practical examples on the following matters:

• the role of compliance in preventing competition manipulation;
• key challenges faced when preventing sport manipulation;
•  the implementation of compliance tools and monitoring programmes; and
• recent developments in contractual matters with sports stakeholders.

Widespread concern with environmental, social and governance (ESG) related issues, coupled with growing political pressure, has seen law makers and regulators increasingly turning to criminal law. For example, the legislation introduced to criminalise modern slavery or environmental damage in certain jurisdictions and the use of existing offences to prosecute corporate ‘greenwashing’ in others. Recent case law has highlighted how the long arm of money laundering legislation can potentially catch corporates for breaches of ESG offences many steps removed in the supply chain. 

The panel will consider how the trend for criminal law remedies to tackle ESG concerns is developing across and between various jurisdictions in this increasingly important area for practitioners.

Corporate wrongdoing has been a particular concern across the globe in recent years. This has led to evolving regulations which deal particularly with economic crimes, creating in certain jurisdictions an increasingly more severe enforcement regime for this kind of wrongdoing. 

In this panel, we will review recent developments to economic crime laws and corporate criminal liability across different jurisdictions, in particular examining trends towards creating specific corporate offences or treating these offences more severely than the general laws applicable to criminal conduct.

Turning to practice, we will also review global trends in connection with new legislation and enforcement of corporate criminal liability and the different issues that it raises.

This topic explores the growing legal complexities surrounding the prosecution of owners and issuers of encrypted chat messenger services, with a focus on recent high-profile cases, such a EncroChat and Telegram. It will examine the balance between privacy, security and law enforcement, and discuss the implications of these prosecutions for service providers, users and regulatory frameworks.

Mutual legal assistance, where admitted, takes months if not years to be fully, partially or finally not enforced at all. Letters rogatory can be poorly drafted and not reflect the issues at stake. Criminal proceedings are covered by secrecy and the requested elements might only be accessed once the battle is over. In the meantime, frauds are perpetrated at light speed, money flows from one bank to dozens of others and goods are diverted to non-cooperative jurisdictions while individuals and corporations may be investigated for the same facts in several places. With experts from all continents, the panel will discuss the ever-expanding role of criminal lawyers in defending or assisting clients over the world, exchanging information about foreign proceedings in a timely manner, speeding up judicial assistance, initiating local proceedings and seizing stolen assets faster than the enforcement authorities. 

Defence lawyers play a vital role in the integrity of any functioning criminal justice system. Yet attacks on the work of criminal defence lawyers around the world are increasing. Serving as a criminal defense lawyer has never been popular. As the old joke goes: ‘please don’t tell my mother I’m a criminal defence lawyer; she thinks I play piano in a brothel.’ But now, from legislation curbing the independence of lawyers and eroding the attorney client privilege, to disciplinary proceedings against defense attorneys, to criminal prosecution of defense lawyers for their work on behalf of their clients, being a criminal defence lawyer can be particularly risky. This panel will discuss these trends, attacks on defence lawyers in their jurisdictions and what all of this means for the future of being a criminal defence lawyer and the rule of law generally.

Internal investigations are under scrutiny by courts, interviewees, unions, corporate politics, business partners, auditors, enforcement authorities and regulators alike. Based on experience, panellists will compare and contrast ethical, legal and practical challenges and how they were overcome, with a focus on cross-border situations. The audience will be asked to reflect on its own experience in seeking to ensure the robustness of the investigation process.