The criminal liability of legal entities has become relevant in view of the increase in regulatory requirements at a global level. In the case of Chile, companies are working on the implementation of the new Economic Crimes Law that will come into force next September, and there are still doubts.
Therefore, BH Complaince and Dal Pozzo & Medina held the webinar “Global Challenges on Corporate Criminal Liability” in order to show what is happening in other latitudes in this area and the importance of strengthening compliance programs taking into account local and extraterritorial regulations.
The event was moderated by the CEO of BH Compliance, Susana Sierra, who pointed out that this webinar seeks to demonstrate how the Economic Crimes Law is in line with international standards and requirements.
BH Compliance’s Director of Legal & Compliance, Francisco Bilbao, began the webinar by referring to the measures being implemented by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) with respect to corporate criminal prosecution, seeking the cooperation of the companies themselves to combat collar crimes, with a focus on self-reporting and condemnation of individual responsibilities, as well as solid compliance programs that apply incentives, have resources to be put into practice and are evaluated by independent third parties.
Likewise, Francisco compared some points of the new Chilean regulations with those established by the DOJ, such as risk management with third parties or the application of the compliance program.
Gonzalo Medina, a partner at Dal Pozzo & Medina, a lawyer who participated in the drafting of the Economic Crimes Law, referred to the main areas of challenge for the correct functioning of the amendments to this law in the area of criminal liability. In this regard, he referred to four problem areas: (1) the new framework that includes the expansion of the catalog of crimes and the new model of attribution of criminal liability; (2) cultural challenges such as the end of certification, the cultural change of corporate governance and reckless litigation; (3) institutional challenges such as the training of judges and prosecutors; and (4) business challenges such as internal coordination, models adapted to risks as well as the real perception of these, and sectoral standards.
Finally, it was the turn of the Director of the Master in Regulatory Compliance of the Universidad Castilla de la Mancha of Spain, Adán Nieto, who referred to how the new Chilean regulations respond to international standards, highlighting that Chile is part of a model of criminal liability of legal persons, which is “the genetically Italian model of the 231”, which inspired other countries such as Spain, Peru or Argentina.
He also highlighted how it incorporates the responsibility of the number of people who can be liable to the company. And in this, he said that there is a “tremendously innovative element in the Chilean law that goes in connection with phenomena that are also occurring in the European Union, which is the criminal liability derived from the acts of suppliers”.
In addition, Adán Nieto stressed the importance of risk analysis to measure the effectiveness of compliance programs.
