CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jorge Bofill and César Ramos, Bofill Escobar Silva Abogados
mere fact of granting/consenting to a benefit is sanctioned as bribery. With respect to the benefit, it can be an eco - nomic benefit or any other kind of benefit (ie, social or sexual). An exception is stated in Article 251 sexies, according to which, some conduct – such as giving or offering protocol donations, or those of little economic value that are customarily given as manifestations of courtesy and good educa - tion – will not be considered as an offence. Compliance Programmes Chilean legislation does not include a specific obligation to prevent bribery, corruption or any other corporate crime, nor does it oblige com - panies to maintain compliance programmes. Nonetheless, Law No 20,393 acknowledges the importance of compliance programmes, and a suitable and effectively implemented crime-pre - vention model may be an exculpatory factor for the legal entity, as explained in 3.3 Corporate Liability . Public Officials Article 260 of the Criminal Code contains a broad definition of public officials, which applies to all offences committed by them. This concept extends to all those who exercise a “public func - tion”, applying to all bodies created or depend - ent on the state. In this respect, it includes situations that clearly go beyond the restricted technical notion that administrative legislation confers to the term “public official”. Bribery of foreign officials constitutes an excep - tion to the principle of territoriality generally applicable in Chile. In that sense, Chilean courts may have jurisdiction regarding the bribery of a foreign official committed abroad, either by a
Chilean national or a foreigner with residence in Chile. The offence consists of offering or promis - ing a benefit, of economic or any other nature, to a foreign public official in return for the foreign public official’s performance or omission of an act, thereby providing an unfair advantage in an international transaction (or business deal) to the One of the main novelties brought about by Law No 21,121 was the criminalisation of commercial bribery. It punishes an employee or mandatary who requests or accepts an economic or other benefit, for themselves or for a third party, in order to favour or be favoured in the contracting offeror of the bribe. Commercial Bribery Influence-peddling is punished in Article 240 bis of the Criminal Code. This rule sanctions the public employee who, being directly or indirectly interested in any kind of contract or operation in which another public employee must inter - vene, exercises influence over the other public employee to obtain a favourable decision for their own interests. In Chilean legislation, it is not considered an offence for a private person to seek to influence the decisions of a foreign public official. 2.3 Financial Record-Keeping Criminal Sanctions There is no specific criminal sanction related to financial record-keeping. However, there are many administrative rules that impose an obligation on corporations to maintain correct accounts and a duty to provide reliable financial information. of one bidder over another. 2.2 Influence-Peddling
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