Liability of legal persons and compliance programs in acts of corruption in Brazil and Argentina

Davi de Paiva Costa Tangerino, Juan Pablo Montiel, Henrique Olive

Keywords

White Collar Crime; Administrative Penalties; Criminal Liability of Legal Persons; Corruption; Compliance; Comparative Law.

Abstract

This work aims to introduce and contrast the significant aspects related to the liability of legal persons in acts of corruption in Brazil and Argentina. The relevance of this study comes from the fact that both countries recently implemented new laws regulating the prevention of corruption act and establish punishments to legal persons. As a part of this investigation, this study clarifies the process of recognition of the criminal liability of legal persons in Brazil and Argentina. With that, we determine that Brazil has a system based on administrative and civil liability whilst the criminal liability is the Argentinian central instrument in the fight against corruption. After that, we evaluate the specifications of the compliance programs in both countries and its role as a factor in mitigating sanctions. Then, we determine that there are essential differences between the two choices examined in the treatment of corruption; despite that, both can result in very similar consequences.