Corporate Compliance
Lawyers Specialized in Corporate Compliance
What is Corporate Compliance?
Today, we hear more and more discussion about Corporate Compliance, which is essentially a criminal risk prevention plan for legal persons, that is, for companies.
Since 2010, legal persons can be criminally liable for crimes committed within a company, with all the damages that this entails. However, in 2015, a change in the Criminal Code introduced the possibility of companies being exempt from criminal liability if they have a model of organization and control that includes surveillance measures, that is, if they have a criminal risk prevention or corporate compliance plan.
For whom is Corporate Compliance intended?
Corporate Compliance plans are geared to medium-sized and large companies; however, any legal person that is responsible for employees can adopt a criminal prevention plan.
What could happen if we don’t have a Corporate Compliance plan?
The consequence of not having a Corporate Compliance plan is that if a crime is committed for the direct or indirect benefit of the company, the latter may be criminally liable and could face the different penalties that the Criminal Code specifies for legal persons.
What penalties could we face?
In the event that a legal person is found criminally liable, the penalties that could be imposed on the company are as follows:
- Fines
- Dissolution of the legal person
- Suspension of its activities
- Closure of its premises and establishments
- Prohibition from future involvement in the activities in which the offense was committed.
- Inability to obtain subsidies or public aid, establish contracts with the public sector or take advantage of tax benefits and incentives or Social Security benefits.
- Judicial intervention in the company
Finally, we must not overlook the fact that being convicted of a crime has a great impact on a company’s reputational value, another reason why it is highly advisable to have a criminal risk prevention plan.
Services offered by our firm
At Caruncho y Tomé, we encourage companies to adopt a true corporate code of ethics, because we know that it will not only benefit them, but it will also have a positive impact on society.
Our Corporate Compliance Team
Our team of Corporate Compliance lawyers has a solid background in Criminal Law, and includes professionals specialized in the different branches of Law. They design and develop crime prevention protocols, carry out exhaustive analyses of the areas of criminal responsibility of the company, ensure compliance with legal regulations and implement criminal prevention plans, and provide the corresponding training for managers and employees.