Thomas Incalza is a professor at the Faculty of Law of Hasselt University and KU Leuven. He obtained his PhD in Law from KU Leuven in 2018 with a dissertation on the detection and criminal prosecution of the laundering of tax-derived proceeds, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Veerle Colaert and Prof. Dr Raf Verstraeten. During his studies, he was awarded the OVB Student Prize (2011) and the Jura Falconis Prizes (2011) for his research in criminal procedure.
His academic work is situated within criminal law and criminal procedure, with particular emphasis on economic and financial criminal law, anti-money laundering regulation, supervisory and sanctioning procedures, and the right to remain silent. His doctoral and subsequent research address both substantive criminal law issues and complex procedural questions, including digital investigative techniques and the exchange of information between private and public actors in the fight against organised and profit-driven crime.
He teaches, inter alia, Introduction to Law, Economic Law and Company Law at Hasselt University, and is also active in teaching and research at KU Leuven in the fields of company law and economic and financial criminal law. He supervises bachelor’s and master’s theses, is involved in master’s dissertations and moot court exercises, and serves on doctoral and examination committees at various universities.
In addition to his academic activities, he practises as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar, focusing on large-scale and complex criminal proceedings, in particular in the field of corporate criminal law and white-collar crime. His practice includes cases involving fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, human trafficking and international sanctions, as well as proceedings with a cross-border dimension and involving regulated sectors, including financial institutions and the liberal professions. He is registered with distinction on the roll of the Dutch-speaking Bar of Brussels and teaches criminal procedure to trainee lawyers.
He holds several positions within the legal community. He is Chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Unit of the Flemish Bar Association, a member of its Criminal Law Committee, and represents the Flemish Bar in the AML Committee of the CCBE at European level. He has been involved in the Salduz working group and in the development of the Salduz web application for the practical implementation of Salduz legislation. He has also served on the board of the Flemish Conference of the Bar of Brussels and delivered the opening address at the ceremonial opening of its 134th judicial year at the Court of Cassation.
He is a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Compliance and Integrity and of the corporate criminal law section of the Journal of Belgian Commercial Law. His publications include contributions on criminal law and criminal procedure, in particular anti-money laundering regulation, financial and economic criminal law, the right to remain silent, and the relationship between criminal and administrative sanctioning regimes. He has contributed to several research projects funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and to studies for European institutions.