On November 7, 2022, the Oral Criminal Trial Court of Talca handed down a conviction against “Consultora Capacitación y Desarrollo Educer Ltda.” (hereinafter “Educer”) for the commission of the crime of bribery , executed by its general manager with the objective of being awarded different projects of the National Training and Employment Service (SENCE) in the Maule Region.
The facts that are the subject of the recent sentence date back to 2014 and 2015, when the regional director of SENCE in the Maule Region together with another official dependent on him, would have received payments from the general manager of Educer. It should be noted that the Court sentenced both the general manager of Educer and the SENCE public officials with custodial sentences, temporary absolute disqualification from public positions or offices, and a fine for tax benefit .
Taking into consideration the breach of management and supervision duties, Educer was convicted as the author of the crime of bribery and sanctioned with:
- The loss of 20% of tax benefits.
- Fine of 400 Monthly Tax Units.
- Ancillary penalty of publishing an extract of the operative part of the conviction in the Official Gazette or another newspaper with national circulation.
This new condemnatory case against a legal person only reinforces the importance of companies having a good Crime Prevention Model that contains the elements indicated by Law No. 20,393, that is:
- Appointment of a Crime Prevention Officer who has the means and powers to perform their duties.
- A crime prevention system that identifies risky activities in relation to crimes punishable by law and establishes internal protocols and procedures together with sanctions in case of non-compliance.
- The dissemination of the crime prevention system to all members of the company, together with the supervision of its compliance.
Nowadays, our legislation positions the legal person as a guarantor of the surveillance of the correct actions of its workers , being its responsibility, by virtue of its duties of direction and supervision, to prevent the commission of crimes .
For more information on these issues, you can contact our az Compliance group:
Francesca Franzani | Compliance Group Director | ffranzani@az.cl
Florence Fuentealba | Compliance Group Associate | ffuentealba@az.cl
Jamie Winter | Director of the Criminal Litigation Group | jwinter@az.cl
