IT business has traditionally been considered successful and profitable. In 2016, Ukrainian companies officially exported $ 1.1 billion in computer services. Such success cannot go unnoticed by law enforcement. Each of them is looking for their own reason to visit an IT company. Tax police are looking for tax evaders, the SBU is looking for traffickers and sponsors of terrorism, and the police are looking for copyright infringers. Recent searches of Ukrgazvydobuvannya and Dragon Capital confirm that they are looking not only for IT companies, but also for their clients. Therefore, those who are prudent - prepare in advance for unwanted visits of people in masks.
Bargen Law Firm partner Andriy Gevko helped the participants of the Law IT workshop to prepare for communication with law enforcement officers. The event was organized by Km Code'n'Coffee and Stfalcon on April 22 for the IT community of Khmelnytsky.
Andrew began with inquiries from law enforcement and "informal visits." This is often how they gather preliminary information about the company. Therefore, you should be extremely careful. You should not rush to provide documents at the request of the investigator. After all, there are always reasons to refuse him.
"It is necessary to react completely differently to the decision on temporary access to things and documents. If the company unreasonably fails to provide documents for such a decision, everything could end in a search, ”Andriy Gevko advises. At the same time you need to carefully check the validity of the decision, the details of your company and the list of documents requested.
Andrew also shared his experience of conducting searches and told some interesting and funny life stories. He advises to try to establish psychological contact with the investigator first: "If you start to" swing the rights "immediately, it will end up that the special forces will just put you out the door. It is much more important to record everything correctly in the search report. If the investigator "accidentally forgot" to write down cash or one of the computers, do not hesitate and calmly help him to describe everything correctly. Only then will you have a chance to get your property back. ”
Andrew's presentation can be viewed here: https://goo.gl/dJbvGI
