12 novembre 2026 | Interventions
From detection to resolution:
Structuring internal investigations
across Latin America's evolving legal
landscape
12 novembre 2026 | Interventions
From detection to resolution:
Structuring internal investigations
across Latin America's evolving legal
landscape
AIJA Half-Year November Conference, Buenos Aires
This session will examine how multinational companies can organise and conduct effective internal investigations when fraud or business crime is detected within their Latin American operations. Against the backdrop of an evolving and fragmented legal landscape, where recently enacted anti-corruption statutes coexist with varying procedural traditions and regulatory expectations, the panel will focus on the concrete decisions and structures that investigation teams must put in place from the outset.
Panellists will discuss the key design choices that shape an investigation: how to define its scope and objectives, who should lead the process, how to assemble a cross-functional team including forensic accountants and eDiscovery specialists, and how to establish reporting lines that satisfy board and audit committee oversight while protecting privilege. The discussion will also address how to plan document collection and employee interviews across jurisdictions with differing data protection and labour law requirements, how to issue locally enforceable litigation holds, and how to sequence investigative steps to preserve legal privilege across civil and common law systems. Panellists will consider the practical tension between conducting a thorough investigation and managing the risk of parallel proceedings, including decisions about when and how much to disclose to regulators in multiple countries.
An important aspect of the session will address how the growing adoption of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and analogous negotiated resolution tools across Latin America shapes investigation design from the start. Panellists will explore how DPA-like mechanisms in jurisdictions such as Brazil (acordos de leniência and acordos de não persecução penal), Argentina, Colombia, and others influence decisions about the depth of the inquiry, the degree of cooperation with prosecutors, the treatment of privileged materials, and the remediation measures built into the investigation's findings. The panel will also consider the challenges of coordinating potential resolutions across multiple jurisdictions, including conflicting obligations and the absence of established frameworks for inter-agency credit.
The session will conclude with a practical discussion on how in-house compliance teams, external counsel, and forensic specialists can collaborate efficiently within this complex environment, defining roles, managing information barriers, and ensuring that the investigation's output is defensible, proportionate, and aligned with both local regulatory expectations and the company's global compliance objectives.
This session will examine how multinational companies can organise and conduct effective internal investigations when fraud or business crime is detected within their Latin American operations. Against the backdrop of an evolving and fragmented legal landscape, where recently enacted anti-corruption statutes coexist with varying procedural traditions and regulatory expectations, the panel will focus on the concrete decisions and structures that investigation teams must put in place from the outset.
Panellists will discuss the key design choices that shape an investigation: how to define its scope and objectives, who should lead the process, how to assemble a cross-functional team including forensic accountants and eDiscovery specialists, and how to establish reporting lines that satisfy board and audit committee oversight while protecting privilege. The discussion will also address how to plan document collection and employee interviews across jurisdictions with differing data protection and labour law requirements, how to issue locally enforceable litigation holds, and how to sequence investigative steps to preserve legal privilege across civil and common law systems. Panellists will consider the practical tension between conducting a thorough investigation and managing the risk of parallel proceedings, including decisions about when and how much to disclose to regulators in multiple countries.
An important aspect of the session will address how the growing adoption of Deferred Prosecution Agreements and analogous negotiated resolution tools across Latin America shapes investigation design from the start. Panellists will explore how DPA-like mechanisms in jurisdictions such as Brazil (acordos de leniência and acordos de não persecução penal), Argentina, Colombia, and others influence decisions about the depth of the inquiry, the degree of cooperation with prosecutors, the treatment of privileged materials, and the remediation measures built into the investigation's findings. The panel will also consider the challenges of coordinating potential resolutions across multiple jurisdictions, including conflicting obligations and the absence of established frameworks for inter-agency credit.
The session will conclude with a practical discussion on how in-house compliance teams, external counsel, and forensic specialists can collaborate efficiently within this complex environment, defining roles, managing information barriers, and ensuring that the investigation's output is defensible, proportionate, and aligned with both local regulatory expectations and the company's global compliance objectives.
