ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Enrico Maria Mancuso, Federico Bracalente, Marco Accorroni and Marco Mariotti, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
of the defendant or a third party, the victim is entitled to restitution of those specific assets – a remedy that operates in rem over the asset itself. Furthermore, by way of security for their civil claim, civil claimants may apply for a conservatory seizure over the defendant’s assets, a measure broadly equiv - alent to a freezing injunction, the purpose of which is to preserve the enforceability of any future damages award. 7. Enforcement Priorities and Case Law Developments 7.1 Enforcement Priorities Enforcement priorities in financial crime currently include the following. • Fraud and corruption in the use of EU recovery funds: particular focus is placed on fraud, misap - propriation and corruption schemes connected to the allocation and execution of projects financed under the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR), given the substantial inflow of EU funds and related audit and control obligations. • VAT fraud and tax crimes: carousel fraud and broader forms of cross-border VAT fraud, as well as international tax evasion schemes, continue to represent key enforcement priorities. These are increasingly addressed through the use of data analytics tools and strengthened international co- operation mechanisms. • Crypto-assets and digital finance: enforcement has significantly intensified in relation to crypto-asset activities, with particular attention to unauthorised provision of investment services, market abuse and money laundering risks associated with digital assets. • Compliance with EU restrictive measures: enforce - ment efforts have increasingly focused on viola - tions and circumvention of EU restrictive measures. 7.2 Recent Case Law and Latest Developments Recent Legislative Developments These include:
• transposition of EU Directive No 2024/1226 on sanctions enforcement (Legislative Decree No 211/2025), expanding predicate offences under Decree 231 and introducing turnover-based corpo - rate fines; • strengthened whistle-blower protections (Legisla - tive Decree No 24/2023); • implementation of the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework for crypto-asset regulation (Legislative Decree No 129/2024); • transposition of the Corporate Sustainabil - ity Reporting Directive (CSRD; EU Directive No 2022/2464) expanding mandatory environmental, social and governance disclosure obligations (Leg - islative Decree No 125/2024); and • abolition of the crime of abuse of office (Law No 114/2024), narrowing criminal liability for public officials. Significant Recent Case Law Supreme Court, Criminal Section, No 23401/2022 on corporate liability clarified that: • the adequacy of an organisational model must be assessed ex ante based on the “acceptable risk threshold”; • the supervisory body’s effectiveness must be assessed in terms of causal relevance to the offence; and • for offences committed by top managers, fraudu - lent circumvention of the organisational model must be specifically proven. Supreme Court, Criminal Section, No 23438/2025 fur - ther clarified that the probation regime (Article 168-bis ICC) may not be applied to legal entities under Decree 231, as it is limited to natural persons. Any extension to corporate entities would require an express legisla - tive intervention. The decision reinforces the formal separation between individual criminal liability and corporate liability, and has prompted discussion on a potential reform of Decree 231 currently under scrutiny by Parliament.
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