White-Collar Defense & Transnational Crimes
Cross-Border Criminal Defense & Regulatory Enforcement
In an increasingly regulated and enforcement-driven business environment, executives and corporations face heightened exposure to corporate criminal liability, cross-border investigations, and regulatory enforcement actions. Criminal matters involving corporate activity frequently extend beyond a single jurisdiction, triggering parallel investigations, international cooperation mechanisms, and significant reputational risk.
Mermeroglu Legal advises executives, board members, and corporations on complex criminal and regulatory matters arising from corporate operations, with a particular focus on cross-border and multi-jurisdictional exposure. The firm combines criminal law expertise with a strong understanding of corporate governance, compliance obligations, and international enforcement standards.
Legal Framework
Three Dimensions of Exposure
Individual Criminal Liability
Enforcement authorities increasingly focus on personal accountability within corporate structures. Executives and board members may face criminal liability not only for direct involvement in unlawful conduct, but also for failures in supervision, internal controls, and compliance governance — making individual exposure a central concern in any corporate investigation.
Corporate Criminal Liability
Corporate criminal liability frameworks vary across jurisdictions, but enforcement trends increasingly emphasise organisational responsibility, compliance culture, and governance failures. Corporations may face criminal sanctions, administrative penalties, confiscation measures, and severe regulatory consequences where offences are committed for the benefit of the company.
Cross-Border & Regulatory Enforcement
Financial and economic crimes regularly trigger parallel criminal, administrative, and civil proceedings across multiple jurisdictions. International cooperation mechanisms — mutual legal assistance treaties, FATF frameworks, and EU/US sanctions regimes — mean that a domestic investigation can rapidly acquire cross-border dimensions requiring coordinated defense strategy.
Service Areas
Cross-Border Criminal Defense
Defense representation in criminal investigations and prosecutions with multi-jurisdictional dimensions — covering parallel proceedings, international legal assistance requests, extradition matters and coordination of defense strategy across affected jurisdictions.
Corporate Criminal Liability Advisory
Advisory on corporate criminal exposure under Turkish law and comparative international regimes — supporting clients in assessing liability risk, responding to investigations, and managing parallel criminal and regulatory proceedings arising from corporate activity.
Executive & Board Member Defense
Representation of senior executives and board members in investigations and prosecutions involving fraud, corruption, financial crimes, competition-related offences, and regulatory breaches — with a focus on protecting personal liberty, professional standing, and reputational interests.
Financial & Economic Crimes
Advisory on all stages of financial crime matters — fraud, breach of trust, bribery, money laundering, tax offences, market abuse, and sanctions violations — from early risk assessment and internal response through to defense in criminal investigations and court proceedings.
Internal Investigations
Planning and execution of internal investigations — including evidence review, executive interviews, regulatory engagement, and cross-border coordination — conducted in a manner designed to mitigate exposure, support cooperation strategies, and preserve legal privilege.
Crisis Management & Reputation Protection
Integrated crisis management in high-profile or sensitive criminal and regulatory matters — addressing reputational dimensions alongside the legal defense, coordinating communications strategy, and managing stakeholder engagement during investigations and proceedings.
Regulatory Crimes & Enforcement Defense
Defense in regulatory enforcement actions involving financial regulators, competition authorities, tax authorities, and sector-specific bodies — covering administrative proceedings, penalty challenges, debarment procedures, and enforcement by EU, U.S., and other cross-border regulatory frameworks.
Dispute Strategy & Court Representation
Representation before criminal courts, prosecutors, and regulatory authorities — developing coordinated defense strategies that address the procedural, substantive, and reputational dimensions of corporate crime cases, with a focus on early intervention and strategic positioning.
Sector Intersections
Sectors in Which This Practice is Engaged
White-collar and corporate criminal exposure arises across every sector with significant regulatory oversight or cross-border activity. The principal sector intersections include:
- Financial Institutions — money laundering, fraud, market abuse, sanctions compliance, and regulatory enforcement actions involving banks, brokers and asset managers.
- Energy, Oil & Gas — bribery and corruption in procurement and concession processes, environmental offences, and regulatory breaches in licensed operations.
- Construction & Infrastructure — bid-rigging, procurement fraud, corruption in public contracting, and corporate liability arising from project operations.
- Mining & Metals — export control violations, bribery in licensing processes, and cross-border sanctions exposure in commodity trading.
- Manufacturing & Industrial Products — customs fraud, tax offences, supply chain liability, and corporate responsibility for conduct of agents and intermediaries.
- Technology, Media & Telecommunications — data protection violations, cyber-enabled fraud, and regulatory enforcement in digital markets.
- Defense & Aerospace — export licensing offences, sanctions violations, and anti-bribery exposure in government procurement.
- Precious Metals & Bullion Trading — AML compliance, sanctions screening, and criminal exposure in cross-border bullion and commodities transactions.
Jurisdictional Reach
Cross-Border Criminal & Regulatory Advisory
Corporate criminal and regulatory matters involving Turkish-nexus activity regularly engage the enforcement frameworks of multiple jurisdictions. Mermeroglu Legal advises on matters engaging the following jurisdictions, among others:
Turkish criminal law, the Anti-Corruption Law, the Capital Markets Law and the Banking Law form the primary domestic framework. Cross-border matters frequently engage U.S. FCPA and OFAC sanctions regimes, UK Bribery Act obligations, and EU anti-money-laundering directives — requiring coordinated advice across Turkish and foreign legal systems.
For detailed advice on jurisdictions not listed above — including specific enforcement regimes, bilateral cooperation frameworks or jurisdiction-specific procedural requirements — please direct your enquiry through the firm's contact channels.
Standards & Instruments
International Frameworks & Conventions
Cross-border white-collar and corporate crime matters engage a framework of international conventions, enforcement standards and compliance regimes. The most operationally significant include:
UNCAC — UN Convention Against Corruption
The principal international anti-corruption instrument, ratified by 190 states including Türkiye. Provides the framework for criminalisation of bribery, embezzlement, money laundering and obstruction — and for international cooperation in asset recovery and mutual legal assistance.
OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
Türkiye is a signatory. The Convention establishes binding standards for criminalising the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and is operationally significant for Turkish companies operating across borders.
U.S. FCPA & OFAC Sanctions
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and OFAC sanctions regimes have extraterritorial reach and represent a primary enforcement risk for Turkish companies and executives with U.S.-nexus activity — including transactions in USD or involvement of U.S. persons.
UK Bribery Act 2010
Broad extraterritorial scope covers any company carrying on business in the UK, regardless of incorporation — including the strict liability offence of failure to prevent bribery. A significant compliance obligation for Turkish companies with UK business activity or financing.
FATF Recommendations & EU AML Directives
FATF's 40 Recommendations and successive EU Anti-Money Laundering Directives set the international standard for AML/CFT compliance. They are operationally significant for Turkish financial institutions, payment service providers and companies handling high-value assets or cross-border transactions.
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs)
Türkiye has concluded MLATs with numerous states providing for international cooperation in criminal investigations — including evidence gathering, freezing orders and asset recovery requests. Understanding MLAT frameworks is essential to effective cross-border defense strategy.
Our Approach
How Mermeroglu Legal Engages
Mermeroglu Legal approaches white-collar and corporate crime matters through an integrated legal model combining criminal defense, corporate governance analysis, compliance strategy, and cross-border coordination. By aligning legal defense with business continuity and reputational considerations, the firm supports executives and corporations in navigating high-stakes criminal and regulatory exposure in a global enforcement environment.
Each matter is led by a single principal at the firm, supported by an internal team drawing on criminal law, corporate, regulatory and compliance practices. Where a matter requires advice under foreign criminal or regulatory law, we coordinate through long-standing relationships with specialist criminal and regulatory counsel in London, New York, Frankfurt, and the Gulf.
Criminal proceedings involving corporate activity often involve parallel civil, administrative, and regulatory actions. Our practice is structured to address all of these dimensions — procedural, substantive, and reputational — through a single coordinated engagement.
INITIAL ENQUIRIES
Criminal and regulatory matters with cross-border dimensions are handled through coordinated internal and alliance teams.
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