The willful blindness doctrine as a challenge of white collar crime

• Department of Law

The Finance, Innovation and Business Regulation Working Group hosts an event with Álvaro de Juan García.

In criminal law, willful blindness is a theory that discusses the deliberate attempt to remain ignorant about facts which might make someone criminally liable. It is specially applicable in financial and white collar crime schemes. As such, it is becoming a raising concern to the Member States, and the EU as a whole. In fact, as an extremely controversial theory, in many regions of the world, it is not accepted as a defense.

Álvaro de Juan García, Spanish Public Prosecutor and PhD researcher, specialised in financial crimes, shares his thoughts and experiences in regard to this theory, with real examples. He discusses its potential impact in the European landscape and tries to set a standard in which this behaviour can be prosecuted.