A Corporate Crime Base*

The purpose of the Corporate Crime-Base is to warn business - including investors - about risky commercial behaviour in conflict-effected and high risk areas and to help victims in those areas exercise their right to remedy.

To do this, the Corporate Crimes-Base highlights red flags. Each red flag describes fact patterns that have been either investigated or litigated.

Each red flag is based on open sources, publicly available information that we have summarized and for which we provide sources and citations. We have not verified the underlying facts or legal analysis from these sources, so check and cite the original resources, not this web site.

The list of red flags here is indicative of fact patterns but not meant to be exhaustive with respect to cases or risks. There are other risks out there, both to rights holders and for business entities.

Nothing on here constitutes legal advice.

No. Some of the defendants in the cases summarized here have been convicted, others acquitted. Some cases have been dropped, or have been settled out of court. Some cases are ongoing.

Each case has its own history. They are included here because each involves a company or business person ending up in court or being investigated by the relevant authorities.

But it is important to emphasize everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, including business actors in war zones or those accused of international crimes.

War and conflict are not law free zones.

The legal bases for the risk of liability is international humanitarian and criminal law governing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, including rules governing aggression, self-determination and occupation. In addition, national laws governing sanctions may also apply. These laws can apply to businesses (legal persons) as well as individuals and can trigger cases in jurisdictions around the world.

In effect, international criminal law can criminalize business activities that might otherwise be technically legal under normal regulation or commercial law. This can happen both when a business acts to commit a crime directly as a perpetrator or when it contributes to a crime by someone else, as an accomplice.

Due diligence of the type advocated as the basis for responsible business conduct helps business take action to avoid the risk of actual involvement in human rights abuse, including involvement in violations of the laws mentioned above. But due diligence it is not a legal shield of immunity against liability where such involvements result in actual culpable behaviour.

Most of the cases alleging corporate involvement in such crimes as war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide arise in the home countries of the defendant companies or businesspeople, not in the country where the crimes occurred.

This is due to most cases being based criminal or civil laws that allow for litigation of international crimes that happen abroad, such as universal jurisdiction. This has been called the “expanding web of liability” and is increasingly recognized as a necessary element of international justice.

The jurisdiction of international courts, such as the International Criminal Court, tend not to have jurisdiction over legal persons, such as businesses. However, individual business people have been prosecuted by such courts.

So, corporations are not going to end up in the ICC dock in the Hague. A CEO might, but don’t hold your breath.

Yes, it’s growing. The number of cases filed or reaching court alleging business entity involvement in international crimes grows each year. This is in part driven by an increasing resort to violence as part of strategic competition in the international system, a system that is also full of global value chains and multinational production networks.

But the number of cases is still a trickle, not a flood. This is in part explained by the fact that the cases described here are a sub-set of international crimes cases - war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide - and even that larger set of cases are few and far between.

So, yes, in conflict and war, justice can be hard to come by.

When viewed through the lens of strategic litigation, corporate cases involving allegations of international crimes are nowhere near as common as cases aimed at protecting our biosphere or defending human rights more generally. Those other cases can also land a company in court. But we don’t deal with those other types of cases here.

The right thing, obviously.

Seriously, though, all businesses operating in or connected to conflict, repression or widespread violence should be conducting heightened human rights due diligence in a manner sensitive to conflict dynamics to identify the risks that their operations are linked to international crimes. This is a minimum standard for responsible business conduct.

Companies should be aware that due diligence is a practical tool to manage risk and not an automatic shield against liability. Legal risks may still arise.

Of course!

To qualify for inclusion, the cases presented here must have generated a legal risk, which we define as either prompting a formal criminal investigation, formal charges, or actual litigation in court. The substance of the allegations must pertain to international crimes or their national equivalent. Sanctions violations may also qualify.

Drop us a line at the contact email below. If the case you are thinking of meets the criteria for inclusion, we’ll get back to you about the kinds of sources we need to be able to include it. Apologies in advance for any delay. This web site is made by volunteers and we have day jobs, families, etc.

Keep in mind that the list of cases here is not meant to be exhaustive; rather it is meant to be indicative of the patterns of risk of corporate involvement in international crimes. We could try to cover all cases, but then we would need funding… (Donate! :))

We do our best to summarize complex cases in plain language and to stick as close to the original sources as possible. We also provide links to the sources, like company and victim statements and court documents, so you can check for yourself. Please do let us know at the email below of any errors you detect. All constructive referrals will be taken seriously.

Please be patient: this can take time, as the crime-base is managed by volunteers.

There are a number of resources online that will help victims and survivors, business people, investigators, risk managers, journalists, and the interested public unpack the sometimes complex issues related to corporate involvement in international crimes.

Click through here to find links to further resources