GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias Anagnostopoulos and Alexandros Tsagkalidis, Anagnostopoulos
4. Defences and Exceptions 4.1 Defences
foreign public officials is punishable when com - mitted abroad, irrespective of dual criminality. 3.3 Corporate Liability Greek law provides that, in principal, only indi - viduals may be held liable for a criminal act, thus being subject to classic punishments (eg, imprisonment). However, recent Law 5090/2024 introduced criminal liability of legal entities in relation to corruption offences, such as bribery. In such cases, criminal courts have the power to impose fines to legal entities ranging from EUR50,000 to EUR10 million, or to twice the pre- tax annual net profits of the legal entity (if such amount exceeds EUR10 million), if they find that the corruption offence was committed for the benefit or on behalf of the legal entity. Moreover, criminal courts have the power to impose defini - tive or temporary revocation or suspension of the licence of operations of the legal entity, or impose a ban on the exercise of its business activities. In such cases, the criminal liability of the legal entity does not bar prosecution of the individual who was the perpetrator of the offence. Liability of a successor entity could arise in cas - es where individuals managing the target entity are held criminally liable for acts of corruption and the target entity has benefited from these acts. Given the fact that the sanctions imposed on an entity are of an administrative nature (fines, suspension of activities, ban from public tenders), it is highly likely that these sanctions will be imposed on the successor entity as well. It is noted that, with respect to administrative sanctions, the procedure followed resembles the procedure of imposing tax-related fines and sanctions. For these purposes, a legal entity is considered as a whole (ie, the successor has all the liabilities and rights of the target entity).
Under Greek law, it is the prosecuting authori - ties that collect evidence and prove their case. Depending on the phase of the procedure (pre - liminary inquiry, investigation, pre-indictment), the prosecuting authorities need to satisfy gen - eral standards to advance the case file (usually the existence of sufficient evidence to justify fur - ther investigation or recommendation to open a formal investigation or recommendation for trial referral). The defendant is entitled to challenge the pros - ecuting authorities’ case even at the earliest stages (during the preliminary inquiry and the investigation) on all points – ie, points of law and on the merits. In view of this, the defendant is entitled to request file documents from the authorities carrying out specific investigations, and to request the examination of specific wit - nesses, expert opinions, etc. The investigating procedure (preliminary and official) is always reviewed by a Council of Judges (three judges), which is competent to examine any procedural objections raised by the defendant. 4.2 Exceptions There are no exceptions to these defences. 4.3 De Minimis Exceptions There are no de minimis exceptions for the offences described in 2. Classification and Con - stituent Elements . 4.4 Exempt Sectors/Industries No sectors or industries are exempt from the aforementioned offences.
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