Kiril Bougartchev

Practice Areas

Kiril Bougartchev is involved in many notorious white-collar crime cases, including sensitive political and financial matters. He is also involved in regulatory disputes (including regulatory matters before the French Financial Markets Authority, the French Anticorruption Agency and the French Prudential Supervisory Authority) as well as in civil and commercial litigation.

His areas of expertise include the energy, aerospace, defence, automotive, real estate, wine and spirits, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, hotels and restaurants, retail and luxury sectors, as well as the insurance and banking industries.

He notably advises financial institutions and their directors regarding, among others, illicit banking or financial solicitation of clients and laundering of tax fraud proceeds.

Kiril Bougartchev also assists main corporates and their directors in relation with international bribery cases and influence peddling. He is also involved in fraudulent financial statements and swindle matters as well as in stock market offenses.

Kiril finally advises clients in the implementation of anticorruption programmes pursuant to the Sapin II Law and assists them in connection with the controls undertaken by the French Anticorruption Agency, as well as before the French Financial Markets Authority.

Kiril Bougartchev, who was a Secrétaire de la Conférence des Avocats of the Paris bar, also was member of the working committee on decriminalisation of business criminal law and company competition at Paris Europlace. In this regard, he has been working on the reform of article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure (French discovery) and on the extension of the French guilty plea procedure to all criminal offences.

Since 2011, he is an external contributor and examiner at EDHEC Business School.

Publications

Article written by Kiril Bougartchev and Mathieu Lanteri for La Gazette du Palais, April 17, 2024:

"When, by extraordinary circumstances, the national courts convict the informer, Strasbourg expands the case. It makes you wonder whether we shouldn't simply remove the offence of defamation..."

https://www.gazette-du-palais.fr/article/GPL462j0/

In March 2024, Kiril Bougartchev authored an op-ed in Libération entitled "Dupond-Moretti did not have "sufficient awareness" that he was likely to break the law? Let that set the precedent!": "The Court of Justice of the French Republic has just given a particularly scrupulous reading of the moral element, an essential component of any criminal offence (...) You said "sufficient lack of awareness", so be it! We'll plead it!" https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/relaxe-deric-dupond-moretti-une-interpretation-qui-doit-profiter-a-tous-les-justiciables-20240304_3JKTGI2NANGVRJUKUPILYXZNP4/

The French chapter to the Chambers and Partners Global Anti-Corruption Guide 2024

https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/anti-corruption-2024

The French chapter to the Chambers and Partners White Collar Crime Global Practice Guide 2023

https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/white-collar-crime-2023

Article written by Kiril Bougartchev and Joséphine Doncieux for La Gazette du Palais, September 12 2023 :

“Full throttle towards a false good idea".

" We will need to ask ourselves whether or not the sentence handed down can be enforced and under what conditions, as repressive policy cannot be dissociated from prison reality or the budget allocated to it."

https://www.gazette-du-palais.fr/article/GPL453i2/

Article written by Kiril Bougartchev and Edward Huylebrouck for La Gazette du Palais, March 28, 2023:

"Le spectre du sycophante" highlights the need for the judicial institution to constantly find the right balance between excessive denunciation leading to slander and lack of denunciation leading to impunity.”

https://www.gazette-du-palais.fr/article/GPL447q6/

Article written by Kiril Bougartchev, Emmanuel Moyne and Joséphine Doncieux (associate) for Le Monde du Droit, 30 January 2023: « The French National Financial Prosecutor's Office details its instructions for implementing the CJIPs during a conference at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas ». Introduced as an instrument of transparency, clarity and legal predictability, what are the concrete contributions of these agreements and of the new PNF guidelines published on January 16, 2023? »

https://www.lemondedudroit.fr/decryptages/85620-pnf-a-detaille-mode-emploi-mise-oeuvre-cjip-conference-universite-paris-pantheon-assas.html

Global Investigations Review published its Guide to International Enforcement of the Securities Laws, with the France chapter written by Kiril Bougartchev, Emmanuel Moyne and Nathan Morin. This practical reference guide written by solid experts around the world is intended to answer the most significant questions in this matter.

https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/guide/the-guide-international-enforcement-of-the-securities-laws/first-edition

Interview: “Mmm Danone! Dairy giant taken to task over plastic pollution”, article written by Rob Harkavy for Commercial Dispute Resolution Magazine on Danone's case for violation of its duty of care regarding plastic pollution. For this article, he interviewed Kiril Bougartchev, partner, and Joséphine Doncieux, lawyer, who are regularly involved in litigation cases related to the duty of vigilance, whether it is about environmental issues, human rights, or other.

https://iclg.com/cdr/litigation/18472-mmm-danone-dairy-giant-taken-to-task-over-plastic-pollution

Article by Kiril Bougartchev and Edward Huylebrouck, partners, in the Gazette Du Palais, edition of Tuesday 13 December 2022: Ruling despite an unreasonable delay: judging to the point of losing the reason", a comment on the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation's recent judgment of November 9, which confirms the existing judicial precedents as "it was judged that the excessive duration of a criminal procedure could not lead to its nullity".

https://www.labase-lextenso.fr/gazette-du-palais/GPL443w3

Article by Kiril Bougartchev , Emmanuel Moyne and Marie-Alix Danton published in Option Droit & Affaires on 21 September 2022: Initially intended to punish certain financial offences, the scope of the judicial public interest agreement (‘CJIP’) has recently been extended to environmental offences in France. It is in the shadow of the high-profile ‘CJIPs’ concluded in recent years in the areas of corruption and tax fraud that the environmental ‘CJIP’ made its discreet beginnings. What does the future hold for environmental ‘CJIP’ ?

The Guide to International Enforcement of the Securities Laws – France – GIR – 2023

https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/guide/the-guide-international-enforcement-of-the-securities-laws/first-edition

The French chapter to the Chambers and Partners Global Anti-Corruption Guide 2023

https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/anti-corruption-2023/france

Contribution to the Lexology – Getting the Deal Through and the Anti-Bribery & Corruption 2023 France Chapter

The Introduction to Chambers and Partners' Anti-corruption guide 2024

https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/anti-corruption-2023

Languages Spoken

French - English

Awards