EQUITY acted as an expert partner of the II White-Collar Crime Forum
On 22 May, the II White-Collar Crime Forum was organized by Yuridicheskaya Practika with the expert partnership of EQUITY.
Partner at EQUITY Olexandr Lysak joined the discussion of the first session "WCC Wartime Trends".
Together with representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office, the judiciary and the legal community, they discussed the issues of white-collar and corruption crimes.
EQUITY Partner commented on the current practice of the HACC and the European Court of Human Rights.
"The WCC practice is developing very actively, the ECHR makes decisions quickly, and our lawmakers respond to all challenges and changes. Therefore, we, the attorneys, need to closely monitor the processes, study the case law thoroughly and continue to defend our clients," emphasised Olexandr Lysak.
During his speech, he also shared his observations on the problem of the High Anti-Corruption Court judges' transfer to other positions, as this leads to a new consideration of cases by other judges. He analysed the trends of recent court decisions and shared his own recent practice in the ECHR and national courts.
"The ECHR has started working faster. There is already an established practice regarding illegal detention and excessive detention - judgments in such cases can be obtained within a year," said Oleksandr. "At the same time, the state promptly complies with the ECHR judgments, but the problem remains that the courts do not respond to judgments on excessive detention."
And, traditionally, the partner focused on relevant cases that may be of interest to attorneys to form a legal position for clients.
Partner at EQUITY Taras Poshyvanyuk moderated the second session dedicated to "White-collar and corruption crimes".
Together with representatives of the judiciary, the defence and all participants of the forum, we discussed problematic aspects of choosing a preventive measure and the possibility of restorative justice in WCC proceedings, as well as the practical nuances of applying the plea bargaining institution.
Olha Shapovalova, Partner at Benchers Law Firm, outlined the WCC offences and their specifics.
Volodymyr Babichev, Counsel, Co-Head of WCC ADER HABER practice, attorney at law, spoke on the topic of plea bargaining.
Inna Bilous, Judge-Speaker of the High Anti-Corruption Court, continued the discussion on the consideration of plea agreements by the HACC. Ms Bilous also cited several cases when the court refused to approve the plea agreement on its own, on the grounds of public interest.
Ivan Kostiuk, Counsel of Criminal Practice at ADVANQ, Attorney at Law, in his report focused on offences committed in the field of justice.
Serhii Lysenko, Managing Partner of GRACERS, focused on the arithmetic of proportionality of the choice of preventive measures.
We thank all the participants for productive discussions, sharing their experience and best practices, and are confident that the aspects and issues raised during the discussion will lead to positive change dynamics.
The video broadcast of the forum is available here: