Legislative Decree 156/2022 published with numerous innovations in the criminal field, the fight against fraud against EU interests and 231/01
26-10-2022
With Legislative Decree no. 156 of 4 October 2022, the Government introduced some amendments to the previous Legislative Decree no. 75/2020, adopted in implementation of directive (EU) 2017/1371, relating to the fight against fraud affecting the financial interests of the Union through criminal law.
The new regulation aims to adapt the previous regulation to the indications of supranational sources. Of particular note is the rewriting of the regulations on the subject of attempting tax offenses which may threaten the financial interests of the European Union.
The new decree intervened on various provisions of the Italian criminal law system, both with reference to the discipline present in the penal code and found in special criminal laws.
The innovations introduced with Legislative Decree no. 156/2022 have led to changes to the penal code, including art. 322-bis, art. 323 of the criminal code, which punishes "the public official or the person in charge of a public service who, in carrying out their functions or services, in violation of specific rules of conduct expressly provided for by the law or by acts having the force of law and from which there is no residual margin of discretion, or by failing to abstain in the presence of one's own interest or that of a close relative or in other prescribed cases, he intentionally procures an unjust pecuniary advantage for himself or for others or causes unjust damage to others".
The text has also made changes to customs matters, including - for smuggling crimes - the instrument of confiscation by equivalent, which was previously unusable.
The provision in question also operates with reference to the crime of VAT evasion, pursuant to art. 70 of the Presidential Decree no. 633/1972.
Correction and better clarification interventions also concerned the related predicate offenses in the tax area pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/01.