MONACO Law and Practice Contributed by: Donald Manasse, Donald Manasse Law Offices
1. Fraud Claims 1.1 General Characteristics of Fraud Claims Monaco’s civil law system provides for the pos - sibility of filing civil and criminal claims for: • fraud; • making false statements; • corrupt payments; • the equivalent of conspiracy; and • misappropriation. Victims may be parties to the criminal prosecu - tions, represented by counsel and with access to the file, and may demand damages. Alterna - tively, they may sue before the civil courts. The status of “victim” in a criminal prosecution is defined in Article 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure: “The action to repair the damage directly caused by a fact that constitutes a penal infraction belongs to all those who have person - ally suffered. The action will be receivable, indis - tinctly, for all the damages, material, physical or moral.” Fraud The basic fraud infraction ( escroquerie ) is defined in Article 330 of the Penal Code as fol - lows: “Whoever, either by using a false name or false quality, or by employing fraudulent maneu - vers to persuade another of the existence of false enterprises, of an imaginary power or credit, or to create the hope of a success, an accident, or of any other chimerical event, persuades another to give him or deliver funds, moveable assets, effects, cash, merchandise, bills, prom - ises, receipts or any other writing containing or operation an obligation or a waiver and who will have by these means defrauded or attempted to defraud all or a part of another’s fortune, is
punished by imprisonment of from one to five years and a fine.” If the crime involves the issuance of a public offering of whatever nature, the prison sentence is extended to a maximum of ten years. Abuse of Confidence Abuse of confidence, as defined in Article 337 of the Penal Code, is a variant of fraud and con - sists of misappropriating or dissipating assets entrusted for a specific purpose. The maximum jail sentence is three years. The sanctions are increased to five years if there is a public offer - ing, or where a broker or professional has mis - appropriated funds – eg, escrowed funds. If a public official (notary or bailiff) or an employee to whom funds are regularly entrusted violates that trust, the maximum sentence is ten years. Corruption Corruption is sanctioned in Article 113 et seq of the Penal Code, which covers public officials or agents and private actors, regardless of nation - ality, and specifically includes arbitrators. The acts that are sanctioned in Article 113-1 of the Penal Code include a public agent (defined as a person endowed with public authority) retaining a personal interest in an operation or enterprise over which they have authority, and passive or active influence peddling (Article 113-3 of the Penal Code). Passive corruption is the crime committed by the corrupted person (public or private), whereas active corruption is committed by the corrupter.
Both are sanctioned in Article 113-2. False Documents and Testimony
Specific procedures are provided for allegations of the production of false documents in civil pro - cedures (in Articles 290 to 299 of the Code of
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