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On 9 August 2011, the main provisions of the Criminal Justice
Act 2011 (the "Act"), came into operation, namely Part 1
(other than Section 5), Section 7 (other than paragraph (c)) and
Section 8 of Part 2, Part 3 and Schedules 1 and 2.
The Act provides protection for whistleblowers, extends the
Garda Sióchána's powers of investigations into
suspected breaches and creates a wide range of "serious and
complex offences", which attract a penalty of at least five
years' imprisonment, in the following areas:-
banking, investment of funds and other financial
activities;
company law;
money laundering and financing terrorism;
theft and fraud;
bribery and corruption;
competition and consumer protection;
cybercrime; and
the raising and collection of taxes and duties.
The comprehensive nature of the offences covered by the Act
demonstrates a commitment to vigorously pursue white-collar
crime.
The Act makes provision for the following:-
the suspension of detention periods of arrested persons on up
to two occasions, for not more than four months from the date on
which the detention was first suspended, if the Gardaí have
reasonable grounds to believe this is necessary to conduct further
investigations in order to make more effective use of detention
periods;
District Court order may require the subject to furnish the
Gardaí with documents and/or to provide information obtained
in the ordinary course of business by answering questions or making
a statement for the purposes of investigating relevant
offences;
measures relating to how documents should be furnished to the
Gardaí so as to reduce delays associated with the production
of large volumes of poorly ordered and uncategorised documents to
them in the course of their investigations;
measures to prevent unnecessary delays in investigations
arising from claims of legal privilege; and
a new offence of failing to provide information to the
Gardaí in relation to the prevention or investigation of
relevant offences without reasonable excuse. This is however offset
by the introduction of strong legal protection for whistleblowers
which makes it an offence for employers to penalise an employee
(including dismissal, demotion, reduction of wages, etc.) as a
result of making a disclosure in good faith in relation to a
relevant offence to the Gardaí.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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The right of a person to discuss certain matters with their lawyer, no matter how nefarious, without fear of their confidence being broken is one that has been recognised since the 16th Century.
In its fight against corruption and white collar crime, the Austrian Judiciary can from now on also rely on an anonymous whistleblowing system that has been implemented with the aim of obtaining such information more easily.
After many years of a rather slow and inconsistent development
of regulation of corruption in Ukraine and continuous problem of
coordination of the anti-corruption incentives between different
branches of the Ukrainian government in this area, and repeated
delaying of coming into force and later annulment of the package of
the anti-corruption laws, the Ukrainian Parliament finally adopted
the New Law and the New Liability Law.
The ramifications for those found to be in civil contempt (as presided over by the High Court), and, in particular, the court’s power to enforce such a finding against a contemnor who resides overseas, are more far reaching than many (civil) lawyers realise.
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