Foreign trade law regulates economic transactions with foreign countries in laws and directives, taking into account economic, foreign and security policy aspects. These include in particular the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance, the Act on the Implementation of the Common Market Organization and the War Weapons Control Act. Violations of these standards, which are generally very strict, are regularly the subject of criminal investigations and are subject to considerable criminal penalties.

Proceedings for violations of the German Securities Trading Act, the German Stock Exchange Act, the German Banking Act, the German Stock Corporation Act or for allegations of fraud, investment fraud or breach of trust through trading in opaque financial instruments have become the focus of investigative authorities and the public in recent years and are grouped together under the heading of banking and capital market criminal law. In this context, criminal proceedings are characterized by close cooperation between law enforcement authorities and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. For this reason, in addition to the criminal investigation authorities, there is also a need to deal with the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority as an administrative authority.

Since every insolvency is followed by a review of the facts by the public prosecutor's office with regard to possible insolvency offenses, numerous preliminary proceedings are initiated in the field of so-called insolvency criminal law. In addition to the accusation of delaying insolvency, these proceedings are also classically conducted for non-payment of employee contributions to social security, inadequate bookkeeping and balance sheet preparation, tax offenses, fraud or breach of trust.

One of the oldest forms of white-collar crime is corruption, whether in the form of bribery of public officials or in economic transactions at home or abroad. A wide variety of cases form the basis of the countless investigations conducted by the (central) public prosecutors' offices, which do not end at national borders, but extend the provision of information and evidence beyond them with the help of requests for administrative and legal assistance. As a result of the major investigations in recent years and the extensive press coverage of them, corruption has become a focus of attention for the general public, and society has changed its way of thinking. Corruption is no (longer) seen as a bagatelling crime, which is also reflected in stricter sanctions for the accused as well as for the companies concerned, whereby the latter have to struggle not least with considerable damage to their reputation due to public and prejudicial reporting.
We have many years of experience in the comprehensive counseling and defense of individuals and companies in corruption cases, covering the various implications of these proceedings including internal investigations for the in-house review of such cases.

Environmental criminal law includes numerous criminal provisions for the protection of water, soil and air, as well as criminal laws on the unauthorized handling of hazardous waste and the unauthorized operation of facilities. In addition, there are numerous criminal and fine provisions in federal and state special laws, such as the Federal Water Act, the Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act, the Atomic Energy Act and the Federal Nature Conservation Act.

Criminal tax law is also one of the classic areas of commercial criminal law. This includes all penal norms that deal with violations of tax legislation. The focus is on the criminal offense of tax evasion pursuant to Section 370 of the German Fiscal Code (AO) due to incorrect information or concealment of tax-relevant facts in the declarations to the tax authorities.

Self-disclosure with exemption from punishment also falls within this area.

The requirements for an effective voluntary declaration are constantly increasing, which makes sound advice in advance indispensable. Even after the initiation of criminal tax proceedings, a competent defense is necessary vis-à-vis the offices of the tax authorities dealing with fines and criminal matters.