GREECE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Ovvadias S. Namias, Vasileios Petropoulos, Ilias Spyropoulos and Emmanouil Apostolakis, Ovvadias S. Namias Law Firm
• Interrogations will be properly conducted; the listing of findings will remain fact-related. Certain – normative – assessments against suspects will be avoided at this time if possible. A fair trial will be ensured. • Data protection law shall be considered in the col - lection and evaluation of the material. Thus, it must be ensured both that the material remains usable in court in the future and that the company board of management does not run any risk under criminal law when conducting an internal investigation. • On the basis of expertise and experience, all find - ings can be accurately evaluated from the point of view of criminal law. This is especially important when offences are investigated that can only be prosecuted at the request of the injured party (for example, most property crimes), and it applies both in cases where an application for criminal prosecution is to be made to the public prosecu - tor’s office and (primarily) when this is waived. For example, in a recent internal investigation concern - ing a large pharmaceutical company, the incorrect legal assessment of acts preceding the predicate offence as acts of money laundering resulted in an unnecessary extension of the scope of the criminal prosecution. The adverse consequences of such an error are obvious. • A specialised criminal lawyer always reckons with the possibility that the contents of their final report can be assessed in other legal systems by means of mutual legal assistance, while also being able to evaluate properly the evidence already supplied, by means of mutual legal assistance from foreign legal orders (especially under the scope of the principle of speciality). • As external, independent evaluators, they are able to ensure more favourable treatment by the authorities towards the board members following the specialist lawyer’s advice. It should not be forgotten that, although the area of internal investigations is to be regarded as a legal vac - uum, the investigators are not operating in a lawless space. In addition to data protection law, supplemen - tary penal provisions also pose a number of hurdles that must be taken into consideration at all costs in order to avoid criminal liability, claims for damages
because of the internal investigation and possible grounds for nullity. The relevant criminal provisions focus on protecting individual interests of employees in individual inves - tigative measures. The conflict between the duty to testify under labour law and the nemo tenetur principle comes to the fore here. The lawyer’s duty of confiden - tiality and other professional duties, which are estab - lished for the protection of the client, should also be considered. Internal Investigations: A Modern Practice to Modernise Greece The assessment that this practice will prevail in Greece is based on the following facts and thoughts. • Αfter a dramatic decade of great recession and political instability, which almost led the country out of the Eurozone as well as the European Union, Greece is implementing a well-structured mod - ernisation programme. This programme has been approved by the relevant European institutions as a financing programme of the Greek economy through the EU recovery fund (next generation EU). Due to the fact that the most recent evaluations of the rating agencies as well as the economic organisations are particularly positive for Greece, it seems that the Greek modernisation programme is also receiving recognition in the international markets for investments. • Greece is generally considered to be entering a phase of change and production-model moderni - sation in various sectors. According to the National Recovery Plan under “Greece 2.0”, the country will receive EUR32 billion from the Recovery Fund aimed at supporting economic recovery after the COVID-19 crisis for the period from 2021 to 2025. Furthermore, for this purpose, it is necessary to take into account the economic resources pro - vided by European development programmes, as well as private investments required for the large investment projects. In total, a national capital of EUR59 billion will be created, which will completely change the Greek economy, while it should also be noted that international rating agencies have already recently upgraded Greece to investment
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