Money Laundering, Criminal Responsibility of Legal Persons and 2018 Directives

Abstract

The common criminal instrumentalization of companies for the commission of money laundering motivated in 2010 their incorporation into the criminal responsibility of legal persons and the possible exemption or mitigation of punishment in 2015 through compliance programs, which pose several problems. Directive 2018/843 also seeks to achieve greater transparency of transactions, companies, legal entities, trusts and similar instruments, and Directive 2018/1673 makes it compulsory to ensure that legal persons can be held responsible for the money-laundering offense, although it does not require the use of criminal penalties; however, a reform of Article 303 of the Criminal Code will be necessary, and this amendment should be used to remove obvious errors.