Legislative Decree 231/2001 introduced for the first time into the Italian legal system the concept of administrative (but effectively, criminal) responsibility for legal persons, companies, and associations (including those without legal status) for offences committed for the benefit or advantage of such bodies by senior managers and executives or employees/agents involving contact with public bodies.
The responsibility is essentially criminal in nature because:
- It is the result of an offence;
- Criminal proceedings will ultimately follow;
- Strict sanctions will be imposed (with the possibility of a ban on engaging in business activities).
The company cannot be held responsible if it is able to prove that (burden of proof):
- It has adopted and efficiently implemented organizational and management models suitable for the prevention of criminal acts of the same type as the offence in question;
- A body capable of independent action and control within the organization was tasked with supervising the functioning of, and compliance with, the models and keeping them updated;
- The person(s) fraudulently committed the offence contrary to the organizational and management models;
- There were no supervisory omissions or negligence on the part of the organization.
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