Business vs. System: Legal Advice on How to Play by the Rules and Win
01 May 2025
The interview is published in the annual research report of Yurydychna Gazeta “Clients’ Choice. Top 100 Lawyers of Ukraine 2025”
We spoke with Oleksii Miagkyi, Counsel in the White Collar Crime practice at Hillmont Partners, about the current challenges in business protection, the role of compliance, the impact of the war on the legal market and the prospects for development of WCC practice in Ukraine.
— Oleksii, what are the main challenges that you see in investigating and defending clients in white collar crime cases in Ukraine? How does Hillmont Partners help clients overcome these challenges?
— Among the main challenges in these cases, I would single out the following: pre-trial investigations are losing their quality, and the number of errors in the work of pre-trial investigation bodies with signs of abuse is growing. These problems complicate both the protection of clients’ rights and the restoration of justice in criminal proceedings.
We help our clients overcome these challenges by developing preventive defence strategies, analysing risks and representing their interests at all stages of criminal proceedings. Our goal is to predict possible actions of law enforcement agencies, minimise business risks and help clients save assets, time and resources.
To sum up, the challenges are common: “mistakes of law”, mistakes in the subject, mistakes of law enforcement agencies, which affect business, illegally suspected and accused persons.
— What are the most common violations by law enforcement agencies against businesses?
The first thing that affects businesses is the seizure of property. Law enforcers hit you in the event when the courts, that allow certain actions of the investigating authorities, are against this, law enforcement officers try to seize property, seize money and any assets.
We will never be able to investigate the extent of the target: whether it is their conscious understanding and belief that these individuals are criminals and that a certain business is criminal or created using criminal funds. Is it manipulation or intimidation? Is it a mistake or deliberate abuse? Property is seized, which makes it impossible for the business to operate normally and for its structures to function.
How to deal with this? Businesses need to be prepared. First of all, it is necessary to assess the possibility of an attack on the business, taking into account the type of activity that may fall within the scope of interests of law enforcement agencies. This risk can always be anticipated by ensuring that your counterparties are compliant. Second, avoid work with “dirty” funds. Third, understanding who your neighbours are, literally. A completely legal business can be subject to a theoretical search and seizure of all assets. Therefore, you need to keep your nose to the grindstone, conduct high-quality compliance, and operate properly.
— How do you assess the role of compliance in the fight against white-collar crimes? Do clients often seek assistance in developing compliance programmes?
— Compliance is the basis for risk If a business operates transparently and strictly adheres to the developed standards, it significantly reduces legal risks and saves money. We developed compliance programmes for a large IT company, and also conducted security training in case of abuse by law enforcement agencies. We also received a request from an agricultural holding to develop a compliance add-on that would help them, regardless of which of their employees is involved in a particular process, to adequately select counterparties and enter into transactions with a low risk of non- refund, with a low risk of non-performance of contractual terms by opponents.
Setting clear standards, transparent algorithms where a person has no option but to behave according to the proposed algorithm will protect the company from mistakes, reduce risks and save money in a crisis situation.
— Does business understand this benefit?
— Unfortunately, the culture of preventive measures in Ukraine is still in its infancy. Having gone through all the circles of hell, businesses still do not see the critical need to involve lawyers in the practice of proper due diligence and counterparty
Many clients come to us after they have already encountered problems. Implementation of transparent algorithms, policies and procedures can significantly reduce the risk of legal problems and protect businesses from excessive influence of law enforcement. Educational work should demonstrate this in the language of numbers so that businesses begin to realise the importance of compliance.
— How have customer demands and needs changed due to the full-scale war?
— The full-scale war has significantly changed business Initially, requests were aimed at compensation for losses caused by the aggression of the russian federation. Subsequently, businesses faced increased arbitrary actions by law enforcement officers, who took advantage of the reduced attention to their work.
There have always been problems of ambiguous interpretation of the law by law enforcement agencies. However, these situations have now become many times more frequent, as law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of the reduced attention to them amid the full-scale war. They have started to duplicate the functions of regulatory authorities whose inspections are now prohibited. They have begun to expand the range of people, deliberately involving them in criminal proceedings through access to their property.
Today, clients are more focused on preserving assets, protecting their interests in relations with government agencies and ensuring legal security of their business. Responding to risks of asset seizure, account blocking and property confiscation has become particularly important.
— How does the business community react to this?
— Businesses are paying attention to these issues and even raising them at the state level. For example, in October 2024, the President of Ukraine initiated a review of law enforcement actions to put pressure on business.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has already reacted to this, and they have created a dashboard on their website with indicators of pressure on business. It looks very funny, because there are two indicators: the total number of criminal cases – the red line, and the blue line – the number of cases related to pressure on business. Of course, the Prosecutor General’s Office cannot admit that they are putting pressure on business, and this is natural.
However, the problem does exist. The whole business feels it, everyone is talking about it. At the same time, we need to be realistic – this is not the most urgent problem right now. There is a full-scale war going on, people are dying. However, we should not neglect this, otherwise it could lead to the destruction of the economy.
— Is it possible to hold a representative of an authority liable for arbitrariness? Are you aware of any such cases?
— There is no effective mechanism for holing a law enforcement officer, who abused the law during a pre-trial investigation, liable. For example, in the United States, when a detective or investigator comes to a judge for a search warrant, he or she must sign an affidavit in addition to the evidence provided.
In my 20 years of legal experience, I am not aware of a single case of prosecution of an investigator or prosecutor who investigated a criminal proceeding that resulted in an acquittal, which was later closed or cancelled, or a court found the notice of suspicion to be unfounded. However, there have been other cases where a prosecutor has been dismissed for supporting the state prosecution in a case that resulted in an acquittal.
As of today, there is no effective state mechanism for preventing unlawful accusations, unlawful suspicion, unlawful criminal prosecution of both business and individuals. This mechanism can only be launched now and then the fight shall begin by documenting every illegal step of a law enforcement officer for years with a view to further compensation. However, this process is time- and energy-consuming. For the most part, people and businesses do not want to fight, do not want to spend their lives on it, and prefer to forget.
— What are the main challenges your team faces when working with international clients in criminal proceedings?
— In our WCC practice, most of our time and human resources are spent on representing foreign companies as victims in criminal proceedings. What has changed? Clients have begun to understand what is happening in our country, have adjusted to Ukrainian realities, to the arbitrariness and conditional operation of laws. They already understand what legal advisers need to do to better protect their Clients’ requests have not changed. These are requests for expectations from a European country, as they see Ukraine, but with greater investment opportunities. They want to invest, build, and develop without any obstacles from the government and law enforcement agencies.
The main challenges are the need to take into account different legal systems, evidentiary standards and the specifics of international law. Additional difficulties arise from the different expectations of clients from different jurisdictions and the need to take into account local legal nuances that may affect the final outcome.
— How can we support investors in our country?
— We have very good legislation. However, we have problems with non-compliance with the law. Therefore, if we just implement the laws, there will be no problems. We know about the initiatives of our government regarding investment nannies, but we do not see it working effectively. What I would advise is to insure your business, spend decent time and resources on legal advisers, and try to enter the Ukrainian market only through business associations. And, accordingly, regulate your activities here properly, and everything will be fine.
— How do you see the future of WCC practice?
— The future of the WCC practice is also closely linked to changes in international investigative standards. Ukraine is expected to continue to integrate stricter rules to combat corruption and financial crime, as well as increase the transparency of its law enforcement system. At the same time, the role of international organisations and national anti-corruption bodies will increase, as they will monitor the distribution and use of financial assistance received by This means that the demands on human rights defenders and lawyers in this area will only increase.
The legal market in the WCC will face a large number of criminal proceedings related to budget funds. We will face the activities of the NABU and the SAPO and their pursuit of every penny of budget funds that were spent both during the Covid and during the full-scale war.
We all understand that Ukraine’s economy is not working because of the war, and the funds that the state lives on were provided by foreign partners to support us. Therefore, every government agency and company that has been the administrator of the funds received as aid will be audited. We will face a large number of anti- corruption investigations and criminal proceedings. Legislative changes will be aimed at increasing criminal liability for anti-corruption offences, the penalties will be stricter, the standards of investigation and evidence will be lower, and the pressure from anti-corruption agencies will increase. In my personal opinion, Ukraine will implement the standard of proving innocence in corruption offences by the suspect himself. That is, the presumption of innocence in corruption offences will not work.
— Do you see an increased focus on international cooperation in criminal investigations?
— For example, international cooperation in criminal investigations has recently become more relevant. The mechanism of sending Ukrainian investigators abroad to participate in specific investigative actions is actively used, which helps to improve the quality and efficiency of evidence collection. This helps to speed up investigations and achieve more predictable results.
Similarly, the creation and participation of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in international joint investigation teams, where one criminal proceeding involving cross-border crime is investigated jointly by law enforcement agencies of several countries, is becoming more popular. The advantage of such investigations is that the evidence collected in such investigations has the proper admissible evidentiary value in all countries for all law enforcement agencies. Communication between law enforcement agencies is much faster than in case with international legal assistance. As a result, evidence is gathered faster, its quality is higher, and the goal of criminal proceedings is achieved more effectively.
As of today, these are isolated cases, but they hint at an international trend in the fight against crime.
— What key changes have you observed in the Ukrainian legal services market over the past few years? What new requirements or challenges are law firms facing?
— The market is changing: new faces are emerging, and the demand for legal services remains high even during the war. Lawyers are working under considerable stress, but the market is responding to the challenges, as legal support is becoming more important than ever.