On 22 September 2020, District Court in Brodnica issued a first instance judgement acquitting two French businessmen in a complex white-collar crime case regarding a company operating in the computer paper production sector. From the very beginning, the Clients were defended by SMM Legal partners – attorneys Krzysztof Urbańczak and Przemysław Maciak.
The case, pending before the court in Brodnica, started in 2010 and was exceptionally complex. It involved tens of court settings, while the businesses concerned were owned by Polish, German and French shareholders. One of its major elements was a dispute regarding the ‘Drescher’ trade mark. Our Clients, French citizens serving on the Board of Drescher Polska, were accused of mismanagement and causing major damage to the company.
‘It’s hugely satisfying when, after a decade-long court battle in defense of our Clients, you see them finally acquitted’, says Przemysław Maciak, Managing Partner at SMM Legal. ‘The international nature of the trial compounded the difficulty of the case, but such challenges lie at the very core of our profession’, concludes Mr. Maciak.
‘We have successfully convinced the court that the defendants had no intent to cause any damage to the company’, explains Krzysztof Urbańczak, one of the defense lawyers, and the co-head of the white-collar crime department at SMM Legal. ‘We have managed to prove that our Clients were motivated exclusively by their willingness to safeguard the reputation of the ‘Drescher’ brand, regarded as a paragon of top quality in the paper production sector’.
The judgement of 22 September clears our Clients of all charges. It has not yet become final. During the trial, we have cooperated with a Paris-based attorney for the Clients.
