Argentine Congress Approves New Corruption Law

/ Global Compliance Solutions Group LLC/

On Wednesday, November 8, 2017 the Argentine Congress approved a new law to combat corporate corruption.  The passage of this law follows the arrests of two Argentine politicians on corruption charges.

The law applies to private legal entities and covers the following crimes:

  • Local or international bribery and influence peddling
  • Illegal payments to public officials
  • Illegal enrichment of public officers and employees
  • Falsifying balance sheets and reports to conceal bribery or influence peddling

Companies are liable for the above crimes whether they are committed directly or indirectly on their behalf.  A corporation may also be held liable for the actions of third parties acting on their behalf.   

The bill allows for:

  • Courts to fine companies up to five times more than the amount fraudulently obtained
  • Companies to be blacklisted from public contracts for up to 10 years
  • The lessening of a corporations punishment for self-reporting a crime discovered by an internal compliance program, the existence of a sufficient compliance program prior to the violation, entering into a collaboration agreement, among other factors       

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