CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jorge Bofill and César Ramos, Bofill Escobar Silva
3.9 Cybercrimes, Computer Fraud and Protection of Company Secrets To comply with the Budapest Convention, Law No 21,459 introduces new cybercrime-related offences and investigations. The new law amends the Chilean Criminal Procedure Code and introduces eight new offences, including unauthorised access to a com - puter system, attacks on the integrity of a computer system, handling stolen computer data and cyber fraud. The penalty for these crimes ranges from 61 days to five years of imprisonment, depending on the type of conduct and the damages caused. 3.10 Financial/Trade/Customs Sanctions Except for customs sanctions, this issue has been previously covered in different sections (in 3.4 Insider Dealing, Market Abuse and Criminal Banking Law and 3.6 Financial Record- Keeping ). Customs offenc - es cover two forms of smuggling. Smuggling, in its proper sense, consists of introducing into or extract - ing from the national territory goods whose import or export is prohibited. Contraband offences in the improper sense, on the other hand, are types of cus - toms fraud – ie, introducing or exporting a good while defrauding the public treasury by avoiding the pay - ment of taxes on that good. The penalties vary greatly considering the price of the goods and the recidivism of the perpetrator. Lesser cases are sanctioned with a fine of twice the price of the goods, and major cases are sanctioned with three to ten years of imprisonment. As mentioned in 1.4 Extraterritorial Reach and Cross- Border Co-Operation , crimes committed in Chile can be prosecuted regardless of the defendant’s departure from the national territory, according to the extradition rules. Furthermore, Chilean Criminal Law considers different cases in which a crime committed elsewhere can be prosecuted in Chile. 3.11 Concealment According to the Chilean Criminal Code, concealers are those who, with knowledge of the perpetration of a crime or of the acts carried out to commit it, and without having participated in it as perpetrators or as accomplices, intervene after its execution. The con - cealers are sanctioned with a penalty two degrees
lower than that indicated by law for the perpetrator of the crime. In principle, if the defendant is convicted for an offence, they cannot also be convicted for conceal - ment, except for the case of money laundering, where the defendant can be convicted for a specific offence and for self-laundering their own money, which can be understood as a way of concealing the product of a crime. Therefore, both the constituent elements and the applicable sanctions strictly depend on the crime committed by the perpetrator, which is being con - cealed. 3.12 Aiding and Abetting The Chilean Criminal Code distinguishes between two classes of co-operators: (i) the co-perpetrator, legally equated with the perpetrator, although they do not take direct part in the execution of the crime; and (ii) the accomplice in the strict legal sense. The co-perpetrator is the one who conspires with another and provides the means for the commission of the crime. The accomplice, on the other hand, is one who is not included in the definition of co-perpetrator, but who also assists in the execution of the act with previous or simultaneous actions. The co-perpetrator is punished with the same penalty as the perpetrator, while the accomplice is punished with a lower penalty. Therefore, both the constituent elements and the applicable sanctions strictly depend on the crime Money laundering offences are committed by con - cealing or dissimulating the illicit origin of the products of certain crimes, or even possessing the products for personal enrichment if they were received knowing their illicit origin. It is also possible to commit these crimes without knowing the illicit origin for inexcus - able negligence. committed by the perpetrator. 3.13 Money Laundering Therefore, a constituent element of money laundering is the commission of a base crime, which has been established by law, for example drug dealing, arms trafficking, sex trafficking, terrorism, tax fraud, finan - cial crimes, fraud, illicit association, etc.
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