Business Crime

Barbieri Advogados acts in business and economic criminal law in a strategic and selective practice, focused on the defence of companies and their leadership in cases where institutional, financial and reputational integrity are at stake. The practice is guided by a single principle: the design of a defensive strategy that is technically rigorous, evidentially focused and consistent across every stage of the proceedings.

The practice is structured around four main pillars. In corporate criminal defence, the firm acts on the defence of companies and their directors, officers and senior management in police investigations, criminal proceedings and pre-procedural negotiations — acordos de não persecução penal (non-prosecution agreements) and other consensual mechanisms — in matters involving white-collar crimes, including embezzlement, misappropriation, fraud against creditors, fraud, asset concealment and offences against the financial system. In offences at the frontier of tax and criminal law, the firm acts on the defence of taxpayers in matters at the frontier of tax and criminal law — crimes contra a ordem tributária (tax-related criminal offences), tax evasion, tax misappropriation, false declarations — in police investigations, criminal proceedings and pre-procedural negotiations, with simultaneous reading of the criminal-tax interface. In ESG-related criminal defence, the firm acts on the defence in environmental, anti-corruption (under the Brazilian Anti-Corruption Act, Lei nº 12.846/2013) and anti-money-laundering matters — in police investigations, criminal proceedings and administrative proceedings before regulatory authorities. The firm also acts in strategic representation before investigating bodies — representation before Receita Federal (the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service), Polícia Federal (the Brazilian Federal Police), Ministério Público (the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office), COAF (the Council for Financial Activities Control), CGU (the Office of the Comptroller-General) and CADE (the Administrative Council for Economic Defence) in inquiries, requests for clarification and consensual proceedings.

The practice works in close coordination with Tax on tax-related criminal matters that arise from contentious tax work, with Corporate on the defence of directors and officers in matters of corporate criminal liability and on the structuring of criminal compliance programmes, and with Restructuring and Insolvency on criminal-law dimensions that may arise in restructuring and bankruptcy proceedings.