Vikrant Singh Negi

Practice Areas

• White-Collar Defence and Investigations Practice

• Dispute Resolution [Commercial and Regulatory Litigation]

• Crisis Management

Career

Vikrant has considerable experience in matters relating to white-collar criminal law, cyber laws, forensic investigations, commercial litigation (including arbitration), and crisis management.

He has led extensive matters involving money laundering, financial fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, as well as significant cross-border work. He also advised on establishing, maintaining, and monitoring anti-money laundering compliance programs, economic sanctions, and matters concerning forex transactions and export control under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

He also advises clients in connection with employment laws and drafting of whistle blower policies and regularly conducts confidential internal investigations in connection with anti-bribery cases involving the [US] Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), [US] Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA), Sapian II laws of France, the [UK] Bribery Act statutes, and the [India] Prevention of Corruption Act.

He frequently advises clients on matters of copyright and data privacy laws including issues arising in the development and use of generative AI. He has also advised clients in setting up incident response mechanism and protocols in connection with cyber incidents involving privacy incident disclosure and remediation.

He also advises companies on corporate governance and compliance matters, including the curating of strategies, policies and procedures to mitigate exposure and risk. He also assists clients in drafting anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies, creating and implementing compliance programs, and conducting internal investigations and assessments. He also works with the interdisciplinary transaction teams and conducts anti-bribery/ AML diligence on potential merger and acquisition targets, joint venture partners and third parties.

He also has considerable experience in advising and representing clients in the regulatory enforcement actions by various agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Organization (SFIO), Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Crime Branch, Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

He regularly advises and represents clients from diverse industry verticals including Finance and Banking- Hedge funds, Banks, Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) funds, Infrastructure, Hospitality, Media, Logistics, Pharmaceuticals, FMCG, Information Technology, E-commerce, logistics, cryptocurrency developers etc. He has also advised high net-worth individuals and public figures in some of the most sensitive and high-profile white-collar matters.

Professional Memberships

• The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa

• The Supreme Court Bar Association

Publications

• FEPA’s impact on India’s legal and business landscape (Asialaw, August 2024)

• Artificial Intelligence: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Regulatory Challenges (Bar and Bench, April 2023)

• White Collar Crime and Commercial Litigation in India- What are the Challenges and What needs to Change, (Forbes India, December 2021).

• Economic Offences and Director Liability under Indian Law, (Legal 500, March 2020).

• The Legalese of Lockdown (Legal 500 publication), March 2020

• Strict Scrutiny by FCPA enforcement agencies for pharmaceutical industry, (Linkedin.com), February 2019.

• FCPA: ‘Instrumentality’ of Foreign Government defined by US Court, (Linkedin.com), May 2018.

• Regulating the Primary Market in India: Strict Liability Regime for Underwriters. (Halsbury’s Law Monthly, India), February 2008.

• Legal Framework for the Regulation of Hedge Funds. (Hedge Fund Consistency Index, USA), December 2007.

Languages Spoken

• English

• Hindi

• Kannada (Speaking)

Work Highlights

White Collar Criminal Law & Cyber Security

• Advising and representing various clients in the connection with investigations conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Organization (SFIO), Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Crime branch etc.,

• Advising various clients with respect to diligence and investigations, interviews in connection anti-bribery cases involving the [US] FCPA and the [UK] Bribery Act. Also, advising various overseas and domestic clients with respect to setting up systems and procedures in connection with anti-bribery laws.

• Advising various client’s in connection with data theft and security in terms of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.

• Regularly appears before criminal courts and special courts in connection with CBI, ED, EOW, DRI etc.

Dispute Resolution

• Advising and representing various clients in connection with employment issues, recovery claims, misdemeanors and malfeasances by the employees/directors/promoters of the entities etc.