After publishing a very comprehensive report on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain in last December, the Federal Council initiated during its meeting on 22 March 2019 the next step by a public consultation on the adaptation of specific federal law provisions to developments in DLT and blockchain. This further underlines the emphasis of the Federal Council on creating the best possible framework to allow Switzerland to establish itself as a leading, innovative and sustainable location for fintech and DLT companies.
The Swiss Federal Council recently released a comprehensive report on the embedding of the Blockchain technology into the Swiss legal framework: This report shall guide the way to bringing the legal certainty for the Swiss Blockchain ecosystem to the next level.
Conducting Business in Ukraine 2017 All of the information included in this document is for informational purposes only, and may not reflect the most current legal developments, judgments, or settlements. This information is not offered as legal or any other advice on any particular matter.
Conducting Business in Ukraine 2016 Conducting Business in Ukraine 2016 Conducting Business in Ukraine 2016 Baker & McKenzie Renaissance Business Center 24 Bulvarno-Kudriavska (Vorovskoho) St.
Former Emirati official arrested in Saudi Arabia over alleged fraud
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic presents directors of all business entities1 with a profound and unprecedented set of challenges. Now more than ever, key decision-takers in businesses appreciate that their actions will be carefully judged following the crisis. Scrutiny of their actions will come from a range of interested and affected parties including creditors, employees, trades unions, landlords, customers, regulators, insolvency practitioners and possibly even law enforcement.
The Insolvency Service describes itself as the government agency that provides public services to those affected by financial distress or failure. It's core purpose is to deliver economic confidence by supporting those in financial distress, tackling financial wrongdoing and maximising returns to creditors. In order to achieve that purpose, the Insolvency Service utilises its investigation and enforcement powers to tackle financial or other misconduct.
The Government's temporary suspension of the rules surrounding wrongful trading, to apply retrospectively from 1 March 2020 for three months, will temporarily protect directors from actions for wrongful trading (and so encourage them to continue trading in circumstances where otherwise they may have feared to).
Tamara Oppenheimer, Rebecca Loveridge and Samuel Rabinowitz, Fountain Court Chambers
This is an extract from the fourth edition of GIR's The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations. The whole publication is available here.
35.1Introduction
On 11 July 2019, HMRC published a policy paper discussing measures which are aimed at those taxpayers who “unfairly seek to reduce their tax bill by misusing the insolvency of companies”. This will be achieved by making directors and other persons connected to those companies jointly and severally liable for the avoidance, evasion or “phoenixism” debts of the corporate entity.
An explanatory note and draft legislation set out the conditions that must be satisfied in order to enable an authorised HMRC officer to issue a “joint liability notice” to an individual.