Fraud cases of all kinds are a central part of the firm’s daily practice. Across both the public and private sectors, public officials and private individuals may become the subject of criminal investigations when business practices exceed the legal limits applicable to a given transaction and come to the attention of regulatory or supervisory authorities. In this context, our practice particularly includes:
Fraud occurs when a person is induced or maintained in error by another party, who then obtains an unlawful advantage of any kind to the detriment of the victim. It is a common offense in business activities across all sectors and often involves sophisticated schemes, including those related to online commerce—such as fake auction websites, which are well-known examples.
In public procurement procedures, the violation of certain principles and legal rules may constitute a criminal offense. Many procurement-related crimes are committed through fraudulent conduct, including, for example, the delivery of goods or the provision of services of inferior quality to that contracted by the Public Administration and specified in the bidding documents.
In commercial activities, disputes and disagreements are not uncommon. When accompanied by specific elements—such as document forgery or the provision of false information to induce the conclusion of a transaction—such conduct may constitute a criminal offense and become the subject of criminal investigation or prosecution.
Fraudulent acts may also occur within the Public Administration, particularly involving public officials. Such conduct may give rise both to judicial proceedings for the investigation of criminal offenses (and potential criminal liability) and to administrative disciplinary proceedings (for potential functional liability), both of which fall within the firm’s scope of practice.
One of the constitutional principles governing the economic order is free competition, which requires market participants to comply with rules of conduct based on loyalty and good faith. Within this context, various forms of fraud may occur, including, among others, the improper use of a trade name and the fraudulent diversion of clientele.
Among the many forms of fraud encountered in daily practice, a significant number are committed by professionals from various fields in the exercise of their activities—such as lawyers, physicians, pharmacists, accountants, and engineers—giving rise to the need for legal defense, whether in judicial proceedings or in disciplinary actions before the relevant professional regulatory bodies.
The forgery of public or private documents, in addition to constituting a criminal offense in itself, often serves as a means to commit other crimes—for example, fraudulent corporate amendments aimed at obtaining advantages in public procurement procedures. The leakage of personal data made available on the internet may also lead to wrongful accusations against individuals whose data has been obtained and misused to distort the truth regarding legally relevant facts.
The receipt of compensation or indemnification requires the fulfillment of specific legal requirements, primarily the existence of compensable damage. However, it is not uncommon for fraud to be used to justify compensation to individuals who are not legally entitled to it, such as cases in which a person deliberately damages their own property in order to obtain insurance proceeds.
One of the most well-known forms of fraud is that committed against the Social Security system, whether through the failure to remit social security contributions withheld from contributors, or through the use of fraudulent documents to obtain social security benefits without legal entitlement.