Corporate Internal Investigations

Corporate Internal Investigations become more and more important for businesses in order to minimize the businesses’ liability risks. These liability risks often result from a violation of the obligatory supervision of the responsible persons in the company. Obligatory supervision does not stop at national borders for internationally operating businesses and the introduction of whistle-blowing systems within the businesses is only a small step in minimizing the businesses’ liability risks. The greatest challenge for the businesses is, however, the examination and analysis of the many incoming hints during the internal investigation. All of these facts often require an internationally carried-out internal investigation. Due to various recent cases of law enforcement by national or international authorities against companies and individuals, the legal pitfalls and boundaries of Corporate Internal Investigations were often picked as the central theme of publications in the recent past. The authors of this contribution do not halt at the border of only one specific country. They give an outline of recurring questions regarding internal investigations in thirteen different jurisdictions (Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and USA). The book is especially concerned with the requirements for the initiation of internal investigations and the legal boundaries of different investigative measures. In addition, different questions concerning data protection or employment laws, the conduct of interviews of employees and the penalty measures sanctioning misappropriate employee conduct are described.