CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF FOREIGN CORPORATE LEGAL ENTITIES COMMITTING CRIMES

Legal basis:

–   Criminal Code

The Criminal Code has officially introduced for the first time the criminal liability of corporate legal entities, including foreign corporate legal entities.

Rules for punishing crimes to foreign corporate legal entities

The Criminal Code takes effect for violations committed by corporate legal entities inside or outside the Vietnamese territory that this Code defines as crimes or under international treaties to which Vietnam is a contracting party. And according to the provisions of Article 75 of the Criminal Code, corporate legal entities are only liable for criminal liability when the criminal acts are committed in the name of the corporate legal entity; for the benefit of the corporate legal entity; under instructions or approval of the corporate legal entity and the time limit for criminal prosecution has not expired by this Code. Criminal prosecution by corporate legal entities does not exclude the criminal liability of individuals.

According to Clause 2 Article 3 of the Criminal Code, the rules for punishing crimes for corporate legal entities committing crimes are prescribed as follows:

– Every criminal offence committed by a corporate legal entity must be discovered promptly and dealt with quickly and fairly in compliance with the law;

– All corporate legal entities that commit criminal offences are equal before the law regardless of the type of business and economic sector;

– Criminal offences committed by deceitful methods; organized crimes, deliberate infliction of extremely serious consequences shall be strictly punished;

– Leniency shall be shown towards corporate legal entities that are cooperative with responsible agencies in detecting crimes or in solving cases, voluntarily compensate for the damage they inflict, and proactively prevent or alleviate consequences.

Therefore, there are two types of penalties for foreign corporate legal entities when committing crimes, including primary sentences and additional sentences such as Fines; Suspension of operation; Permanent shutdown; Ban from operating in certain fields; Prohibition from raising capital; Judicial measures taken against a corporate legal entity committing a crime.

Judicial measures taken against a corporate legal entity

The Court may decide to apply the following measure to corporate legal entities committing crimes:

– The judicial measures specified in Article 47 and Article 48 of this Code;

– Compulsory restoration of original state;

– Compulsory implementation of some measures for mitigation and prevention of consequences.

The Court may decide to apply judicial measures to force the criminal corporate legal entity to restore to the original state that has been changed due to its criminal act. And based on each specific case, the Court may decide to force the criminal corporate legal entity to take one or some of the following measures to remedy and prevent the consequences of the crime:

– Compulsory dismantlement of the work or part of the work that is not licensed or built against the license;

– Compulsory relief of environmental pollution or spread of disease;

– Compulsory removal from Vietnam’s territory or re-export of goods, vehicles taken into Vietnam’s territory against regulations of law or those temporarily imported but have not been re-exported as prescribed by law; imported or transited goods that infringe intellectual property rights; counterfeit goods; vehicles, raw materials imported for manufacture or trading of counterfeit goods after the elements of violation have been removed;

– Compulsory destruction of goods or items that harm the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment; obscene materials or other exhibits subject to destruction as prescribed by law;

– Compulsory removal of violation elements on the goods, goods labels, means of trading, or items;

– Compulsory recall of violating products being sold on the market.

In conclusion, these are some of the criminal liabilities that foreign corporate legal entities that commit crimes inside or outside Vietnam territory may bear. The Criminal Code has regulated 31 crimes that corporate legal entities may take. In 2017, Vietnam National Assembly supplemented 2 more crimes which were Terrorism financing (Article 300) and Money laundering (Article 324).