Success of the Law Firm’s client – revocation of a decision on securing assets on real estat

The Public Prosecutor’s Office recognised the argumentation of the Firm’s white-collar crime team and revoked, in favour of our client, the property security order in the form of a mortgage with a total value of PLN 1.5 million. The security was imposed in connection with suspected participation in a VAT carousel and obtaining an undue tax refund. The whole situation confirms the importance of thorough vetting of colleagues before placing projects of unclear provenance under their management and the need for constant and personal monitoring of transactions. The fundamental principle of limited trust in business also comes into play here.

The president of a company, which has been our client for many years, entered into cooperation with a business partner who was to manage a new project with a declared high rate of return. Unfortunately, the co-worker turned out to be unreliable and the actions he undertook could lead to the circumvention of tax obligations and expose the company to fiscal liability, while the persons formally managing it were unaware of this procedure.

Driven by such suspicion, the prosecution charged the chairman with a tax offence, applying a kind of presumption that, as a member of the management board, he should monitor the key processes of the company, and if he failed to do so, he was responsible for the criminal tax evasion by the company he managed.

The case is an example of the fact that law enforcement authorities often treat asset security not only as a guarantee for the implementation of future judgments, but also as a coercive measure calculated to ‘persuade’ suspects to cooperate more with the prosecution. Unfortunately, it is often applied to people who have no connection to the crime committed and whose only ‘guilt’ is that they sit on the board of directors and hold formal positions in the company.

The result of actions taken by advocates from our law firm(Bartłomiej Pietruszka, advocate Paulina Sułkowska and Hubert Zalewski, advocate ad litem) shows that it is worth fighting for one’s interest and presenting one’s arguments to law enforcement authorities, as it happens that they result in the revocation of the security and significantly change the balance of power in a trial.