Anne Valérie Julen Berthod

Bär & Karrer AG

Geneva www.baerkarrer.ch

anne.julen@baerkarrer.ch Tel: +41 58 261 57 50

Biography

Anne Valérie Julen Berthod joined Bär & Karrer’s whitecollar crime department in 2006. She is advising Swiss and foreign clients in complex domestic and cross-border financial crime proceedings. She specialises in asset recovery proceedings. She is also very active in international mutual assistance in criminal and tax matters and regularly advises clients in administrative criminal law, with a particular interest in compliance issues, sanctions law and tax fraud investigations.

What motivated you to specialise in asset recovery?

Unfortunately, Switzerland still hosts many assets whose legality can be questioned. In this context, recovery procedures have always interested me, insofar as they require the use of international cooperation instruments, especially in criminal matters, which has always been one of my favourite areas. Also other lessknown tools, such as the Swiss law on debt collection and bankruptcy, which is a technical law, very effective for the collection of not accessible banking/accounting information.

What is it about your role that you enjoy the most?

Assisting clients to penetrate non-transparent structures in order to locate and recover assets that their adverse parties thought were beyond their reach.

What matters are clients coming to you frequently with at the moment, and what do you think is driving this?

We have many trust law cases of clients who have set up these structures in the past and who, due to various problems, often criminal/tax, are trying to regain control of their assets in order to avoid the risks of reporting to the supervisory authorities by the trustees/financial intermediaries they had mandated in the past. The pressure on these actors by the authorities involved in the fight against money laundering or the tax authorities is the cause.

What are the greatest challenges in establishing jurisdiction that asset recovery lawyers currently face, and how can they be tackled?

When it comes to asset recovery, I don’t see major difficulties in Switzerland. If the assets are in a Swiss bank, for example, Swiss instruments will have to be applied. I see more difficulties in terms of compliance for large groups based in Switzerland. Switzerland needs to develop effective negotiated criminal justice instruments to encourage compliance by these groups, similar to what the French have put in place with the Sapin II Law. Not having these instruments weakens the Swiss legal and economic system.

What new technologies are assisting asset recovery specialists?

We do not use new technologies available for asset recovery. We prefer to mandate consultants specialised in IT asset recovery services who master these technologies and are more rational in terms of asset recovery efforts/costs for our clients.

If you could introduce a legal reform that aided asset recovery cases, what would it be and why?

One area where there is still a lot of room for improvement is the compensation of victims in the recovery of stolen public assets. The instruments in place are instruments of state cooperation. Individuals as such are often excluded and have no direct rights to intervene abroad.

In your opinion, how can young practitioners gain the skills required to practise in the highly international and complex asset recovery space?

It is absolutely necessary to understand the specificities of the jurisdictions that surround us, in particular the common law jurisdictions, and to do this, participate in international conferences that count and create a network of reliable and competent professionals.

Looking back over your career, what has been your proudest achievement?

My greatest professional achievement is ahead of me, not behind me. I don’t usually look back but rather put my energy on the present and future.

Peers and clients say: “She is very good for white-collar crime cases” “Anne is very client driven” “She is a top-tier, excellent asset recovery lawyer”