Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine the value of employee interviews, in the context of a corporate investigation, in subsequent criminal proceedings. It thus offers an analytical commentary on the role of internal investigations in the phenomenon of privatisation of criminal proceedings, addressing the provisions on whistleblowing channels and intra-corporate investigations offered by Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, in order to answer the following question: can the statements made by an employee in an internal interrogation constitute evidence in criminal proceedings against the same employee? If so, is the right against self-incrimination violated when statements made in intra-corporate investigations are used in criminal proceedings?; what limits should govern the criminal evidentiary value of interviews with employees in internal investigations?
Keywords
internal investigations; interviews; criminal proceedings; evidence; self-incrimination