Italy Update: Corporate groups: fraudulent bankruptcy and “compensatory advantages”

Court of Cassation, judgment of 21.4.2022 n. 15638

The Supreme Court returns to the issue of the criminal relief of the so-called “compensatory advantages” relating to groups of companies, in relation to the crime of bankruptcy for distraction.

Making a “substantial” reading of intra-group relationships, the courts of legitimacy point out that the existence of a corporate group does not eliminate the legal and patrimonial distinction between the various companies that are part of it, so that the transfer of resources from one company to another of the group, without a reason capable of justifying it, violates the integrity of the guarantee assets of the impoverished company, integrating the case of the aforementioned crime.

The only exception is discernible only in the presence, actual or even justifiably foreseeable, of compensatory advantages that rebalance the immediately negative effects and neutralize the disadvantages for the social creditors, but these advantages cannot be considered to derive from mere belonging to the group and even less from the sole advantage obtained by the controlling body.

By Quorum, Italy, a Transatlantic Law International Affiliated Firm. 

For further information or for any assistance please contact italy@transatlanticlaw.com

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