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For their report about the costs for the police operation on the occasion of the G7-summit in Elmau, the ARD-magazine "FAKT" called in RETEGO CEO Peter Wiedemann as an expert. In the interview the retired Detective Chief Superintendent, amongst other topics, explained the essential security-related problems which are caused by the chosen venue for the event.

CEO Peter Wiedemann talking with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker

About 24,000 civil servants influence the life of 500 million citizens. We use our network for our clients consistently. Industrial espionage is only one of the big issues we are working on. For our Fraud-Workshops in which we convey knowledge for detection of white-collar-crime, we consequently resort to European experts.

Advised entrepreneurs regarding white-collar-crime: from left Hamburg's former Minister of the Interior Udo Nagel, the former Chief public prosecutor of Frankfurt Hildegard Becker-Toussaint and RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann.

High-ranking speakers inform entrepreneurs about how to protect themselves from white-collar crime –the Bavarian Minister of the Interior honoured the event with his presence. The Bavarian Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann, Hamburg's former Minister of the Interior Udo Nagel, the former Chief public prosecutor of Frankfurt Hildegard Becker-Toussaint and RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann laid out the full extent of a scenario which entrepreneurs are often faced with unprepared.

Minister Herrmann described Bavaria as the safest German State, making various efforts to protect its economy from crime. Nevertheless, he made it quite clear, that first and foremost the entrepre-neurs themselves have to take precautions, since the government only has restricted resources at hand.

Also Udo Nagel put it in a nutshell: "The quintessence is: Get some advice. In order to protect your-selves from white-collar-crime efficiently you either have to employ specialists or you buy the neces-sary services. I am aware of the fact that many of you might have a problem with this because it costs and does not benefit your core business at first. But let me tell you, security costs money and pro-tects your core business."

Using the example of the current corruption scandal at Media-Saturn, Nagel analysed step-by-step the mistakes which have been made: no compliance guidelines; no compliance-monitoring; mean-while 19 people in custody; enormous damage to their reputation because the customers have to realise that they have been sold DSL-contracts for many years, not according the advertisement-motto "Geiz ist Geil" (cheap is sexy) but to feed bribes worth millions of Euros up to the top-management of Media Saturn. Not to forget about the internal effect on 70,000 employees if mem-bers of the management unscrupulously help themselves.

Peter Wiedemann from RETEGO explained subsequently how entrepreneurs are often conned: not by fraudsters acting covertly but by business partners and by their own employees. Many of them do not know with whom they are doing business. Who is really in charge there, does the company fulfil its obligations, and who is the real financial beneficiary? Important is also the company's reputation and whether there are connection to dubious persons and organisations. One does not have to know that, some attendees might have thought. Far wrong; in cases of white-collar-crime nowadays, the management is accused of criminal negligence of their responsibilities as corporate organs if they failed to previously check their business partners or whom they employ.

German companies are exposed to serious criminal-liability risks. A spectacular example for that is the sentencing of Siemens AG to a fine of 201 million Euros by the Landgericht Munich 1 in October 2007.

Not to mention international conventions: meanwhile Great Britain has one of the most severe anti-corruption laws worldwide – the UK Bribery Act 2010. It imposes penalties for active and passive bribery as well as the bribery of foreign officials and even the failure to prevent corruption. Further-more it does not only apply to British companies but to anybody who does business in any way in Great Britain.

Only he/she who is able to prove in court the existence and general efficiency of checks and precautions within their company has got a chance to avoid the draconian punishments. The new regulation implies that companies active in Great Britain could be held liable for any corruptive activities of any of their employees and even for such behaviour of any agent or subcontractor worldwide. In those cases British courts can sentence companies and persons to unlimited fines. Persons could further be sentenced up to ten years in prison, companies could be expelled from any public tenders and as-signments.

When the public prosecutor than rings the bell – it is not a courtesy call, Hildegard Becker-Toussaint explained. Quickly the accusations become public knowledge and paragraphs 266/I and 13 of the German criminal code are easily violated. There it states that the public prosecutor's office could file charges of defalcation by negligence in case of faulty supervision and monitoring measures. Whoever fails to pay attention to whom he/she is doing business with and what is going on in the company, whoever fails to thoroughly check job applicants including the verification of degree-documents, is now in a bad position. Only prevention can safe one's own head.

RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann in a high-ranking group of experts.

Under the title: "Setting Europe on the right track", a high-ranking group of experts in Brussels discussed the issues of reducing administrative burdens, combating corruption, and transparency: The chairman of the High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens former Minister-President of Bavaria, Dr. Edmund Stoiber, the President of the Taxpayers Association of Europe Rolf von Hohenhau, the Head of Unit of Corporate Planning and Politics of OLAF Dr. Lothar Kuhl and RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann. Peter Wiedemann gave the almost 300 participants from politics, economy and administration concrete advice how to protect their companies and themselves from white-collar-crime, industrial espionage and attacks:

• Take compliance serious – before the public prosecutor's office or other authorities do it
• Make yourself familiar with the legal situation – FCPA, UK-Bribery-Act, OECD Anti-Bribery-Convention etc. – they could also apply to you!
• Don't let anyone fool you – every business partner has to be screened. It is not only about your money, it is more about your reputation as a respectable company and, therefore about nothing less than your existence.
• Have a close look at whom you are going to employ and whom you assign to positions of special trust and to key positions. Not every PhD is genuine and not every CV is what it appears to be at first glance.
• Take care of your employees and executives knowledge about how to discover white-collar-crime and how to counter it by targeted and goal-oriented measures of continuing education and training.
• Protect your company and its assets (intellectual property) and protect your family and yourself.

All these non-innocuous topics visibly triggered distress in some attendees in the auditorium. After the event it was clear to many that those questions will be even more important in the future than they already are now.

Retego's CEO Peter Wiedemann with former Austrian Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel at the EES-Economy Talks in Vienna.

RETEGO's CEOs and members of the Taxpayers' Association, Oliver Grill and Peter Wiedemann, talking with President Rolf von Hohenau.

RETEGO will maintain an advice-section on security-relevant issues in "Klartext", the members' magazine of the Taxpayers' Association in Bavaria. This service is especially meant to support companies, self-employed people and craftsmen to protect themselves from white-collar-crime. For more information please click here (article only available in German).

RETEGO CEO Peter Wiedemann meets EC-Commissioner Günther Oettinger and will attend a discussion with Edmund Stoiber, chairman of the High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens in October

RETEGO determinedly extends its network in Brussels. The European Commission and the European Parliament design the structures of our common life in a way that the governments of the member states or even regional bodies have a decreasing influence. On the other hand the EC faces fierce competition with the US, Russia and China where there is even no stopping at industrial espionage and white-collar-crime. These and other topics were on the agenda of the meeting of RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann with EC-commissioner Günter Oettinger.

Peter Wiedemann will attend a panel discussion on "Set Europe on the Right Track! – Reduction of Bureaucracy, Combating Corruption, and Transparency". Attendees will be et al. Edmund Stoiber, Markus Ferber (MEP), Giovanni Kessler (Head of OLAF), and Rolf von Hohenau (President of the Taxpayers Association of Europe).

Our new office in the very heart of Munich

RETEGOs growth in the field of consulting and protecting companies from white-collar-crime continues. The new and bigger office in the very heart of Munich in Fuerstenfelder Strasse 5, D-80331 Munich is parallel to Kaufinger Strasse in "Kaufinger Tor". With its new offices RETEGO strengthens the infrastructure of its worldwide network of company-security and enhances the working conditions for our team.

RETEGO optimizes the security of companies by various preventative measures and individual security-concepts. By the four pillars of our portfolio: Compliance, Forensic Services, Training and Protection we support your combating white-collar-crime and industrial espionage, on a national and international level.

Senator Peter Wiedemann in discussion with State Secretary Christian Schmidt at the conference “Security- and Defence Policy in Europe” in Berlin

At its latest conference in Berlin, the European Economic Senate, the high-level group of leading entrepreneurs, who advise politicians, discussed security-politics in Europe, opportunities and risks of the European monetary policy and risks and opportunities for an export-nation. Amongst the top-class speakers were the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence Christian Schmidt, MdB; Jürgen Hardt, MdB and CDU-representative of the Verteidigungsausschuss (Parliamentarian Defence Committee) of the German Federal Government and of the European Union; Hans-Peter Bartels, Speaker for the SPD-Party on Defence Policy; and Prof. Dr. Klaus L. Wübbenhorst, CEO of GfK SE.

In his contribution to the discussion, Senator Peter Wiedemann of RETEGO pointed out that security has to be considered with a totally different background nowadays. Even NATO stated, although the common defence of the alliance will stay the core task, that new threats such as international terrorism and attacks on computer-systems have to be faced. Because of the constantly increasing dependence of modern industrial societies on computer-systems, “cyber-attacks” could not only harm companies and concerns but even paralyse states and nations. NATO has accepted this challenge and set the goal to improve its skills in protection of communication and information-networks.

RETEGO has vast experience in that field and analyses not only security-relevant political and economical general-conditions for its customers expansion into foreign countries, but also advises companies regarding protection of their communication-structures.

Combating white-collar-crime and corruption was the topic of an extensive exchange of views between the Bulgarian Minister of the Interior, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, and RETEGO's managing partner, Peter Wiedemann, in Sofia. According to the European Commission, Bulgaria has to put in even more effort in the fight against corruption to fulfil EU-standards. Peter Wiedemann emphasised that the Bulgarian economy should be involved in these efforts and suggested a concrete plan of measures. It is an extremely important criterion for foreign businesses for any investment under consideration. Before starting new business relationships or entering new strategic markets, it is essential to make a sound assessment of business partner's reliability. RETEGO analyses the political and economic conditions with regards to company's security for commercial activities abroad. Especially in Bulgaria, RETEGO has long-time experience through its employees and contacts in the country.

RETEGO is going to attend the EES Economy Discourse in Berlin, titled "Security and Defence Policy in the EU" where the German Minister of Defence, Karl-Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg and the Prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker will give speeches. The EES is a non-partisan and cross-sector body of successful European companies and individuals, who share their experience and knowledge by advising policy-makers. RETEGO's CEO Peter Wiedemann, as an expert in combating white-collar-crime, is a member of the European Economic Senate (EES).