Economic criminal law · area of practice

Where the criminal case is decided on a figure.

Defence in tax evasion, money laundering, insolvency-related offences and other economic crimes — by an attorney who reads the charge not only legally but also in tax terms, where the loss is in fact constructed.

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The particularity of these files

In economic crime, the technical substance is the defence.

Unlike classic criminal law, in economic files the charge rests on accounting, on financial flows and on a calculated loss. Anyone who does not understand how that calculation was built cannot, in fact, rebut the charge — they can only talk around it.

This is why the defence in such a file cannot be purely legal. It must be able to read the tax audit report, the finding order or the expert report with a technician's eye — to see where the premise is wrong, where the loss is overstated, where the intent the law requires is missing. This is where most economic files are in fact decided.

My training brings together criminal law and taxation: I understand both the criminal side of the charge and the tax mechanism it rests on. Added to this is over twenty years of experience in business, which gives real economic context to situations the prosecution sometimes presents detached from commercial reality.

A principle that matters from the outset. Not every tax mistake is a crime. The law requires the intent to defraud and a significant loss; an error, administrative non-compliance or a different interpretation of a rule remain, in many cases, outside the criminal sphere. And correcting the situation and covering the loss have, under certain conditions, important effects on liability. The distinction between error and crime is often the first ground of the defence.

Florin Hrițuliac, attorney — economic criminal law
Florin Hrițuliac
The areas

The spectrum of economic criminal law.

Each with its own technical particularities, but united by the same logic: the defence is built on substance, not only on procedure.

Tax evasion

Operations deemed fictitious, a loss calculated by the tax authority, the intent to defraud. Defence on the establishment of the loss and on the distinction between error and crime.

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Related tax offences

Excise duties and warehouses, smuggling, withholding and non-payment, wrongful refunds, funds. The system of offences around tax evasion.

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Money laundering

Frequently combined with evasion. Defence on the predicate offence, on the subjective element and on the reality of the allegedly concealed operations.

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Insolvency and bankruptcy

Simple or fraudulent bankruptcy, fraudulent management, embezzlement. Defence on the intentional element that separates commercial risk from a criminal act.

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Corporate offences

Misuse of company assets, fraudulent management, embezzlement, breach of trust, corporate forgery — for directors and shareholders.

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Capital markets

Market manipulation, insider dealing, inaccurate reporting. A technical niche area, at the intersection with financial regulation.

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Corruption

Bribery, influence peddling, abuse of office, procurement, funds — in a business context, where corruption touches money.

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Other offences

Fraud, forgery, breach of trust. The border between a civil-commercial dispute and a criminal act.

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The underlying advantage

Tax expertise, in the service of the criminal defence.

In evasion files, establishing the loss often depends on an expert report. Recently, the question of whether such a report is mandatory for determining the loss reached the attention of the supreme court — because without it neither the loss nor the limits of the trial can be established.

Here, tax understanding makes the difference. I can read and technically challenge the calculation of the loss — the ground on which many evasion files are won or lost. Importantly: the expert report itself is carried out only in the capacity of expert, separate from the defence; as an attorney, I use this understanding strategically to rebut the prosecution's calculation.

Attorney

Criminal defence — Brașov Bar

Tax adviser

Understanding the tax base

Forensic tax expert

The technical reading of the loss

Business experience

The real economic context

Frequently asked questions

What those facing an economic file ask.

I have received an invitation to a hearing / a summons from the prosecution. What do I do?

Before any statement, consult an attorney. What you say at the first hearing can shape the entire file, and the right not to incriminate yourself and to be assisted exists from the very first moment. A statement given hastily, without understanding exactly what is being investigated, is one of the most frequent and costly mistakes.

The right time for a defence is now, during the criminal investigation phase — not later, when the position has already consolidated.

What is the difference between a tax error and a crime?

The law requires the intent to defraud and a significant loss. A mere mistake, administrative non-compliance or a different interpretation of a rule do not, in principle, meet the intentional element the law requires.

This distinction is often the first and most important ground of the defence: to show that the conduct complained of is an error or a matter of interpretation, not an intentional fraud.

The prosecution claims a very large loss. Can it be challenged?

Frequently, yes. The loss held by the prosecution is, in many files, overstated — built on questionable premises, on the assumption that real operations were fictitious, or on a contestable method of calculation. The technical reconstruction of the loss is one of the most effective lines of defence.

And the amount of the loss is not just a figure: it influences the classification, the sentence and the precautionary measures. Reducing it or dismantling it changes the whole file.

Assets and accounts have been seized. Can I do anything?

Yes. Precautionary measures can be challenged. They must be proportionate and justified by a probable loss — and when there is not yet an expert report or a clear conclusion on the loss, or when the assets do not fall into the category subject to confiscation, the seizure can be challenged.

The proportionality of the measure to the aim pursued is a requirement, including from the perspective of fundamental rights, which offers a further ground of defence.

Why an attorney with tax training for a criminal file?

Because the economic charge is, at its core, technical. An attorney who does not understand how the loss was built, how VAT works or how the tax authority calculated the tax base rebuts the charge from the outside. One who reads it as a tax specialist can attack it from the inside, where it gives way.

Bringing together the capacities of attorney, tax adviser and forensic tax expert means exactly this double reading — legal and technical — of the same file.

Contact

Are you facing an economic criminal file?

Whether you are at the start — an invitation to a hearing — or already charged, an early assessment of the file establishes what the defence can be built on and what must be protected immediately.

E-mailrolegal@pm.me
Phone+40 799 597 410
AvailabilityInternational · video or in person
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