due diligence and profiling of customers who had unlawfully used payment instruments issued by the bank - but even for money laundering, which is therefore directly charged to the financial operator itself. Hence the need for an adequate initial assessment, especially in relation to this category of economic operators. I would also like to share a new investigative trend set by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office, which consists in appointing ‘monitors’ under the antimafia legislation to companies that, though outside the mafia context, have shown a lack of compliance, especially in the selection of third parties, with the aim of encouraging compliance culture. The Public Prosecution Office of Milan has also recently started to investigate a particular kind of tax offence aimed at detecting illegal employment or illicit supply of labour, especially in the food delivery and logistics sectors. especially belonging to the mafia context. What are the latest trends and developments? What are the “hottest” investigative trends? I daily experience a significant intensification of cybercrimes and cyber-laundering, with an increase in digitalisation and the related risk of exploitation of new technologies for criminal purposes, which has led to a rise in control functions delegated by the authorities to financial operators and companies to fight money laundering. We are witnessing investigations led by the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office against financial operators, including foreign ones, in which they are charged - not only for the culpable omission of with law, especially inside the purchasing department of companies. On the other hand, sales and marketing functions could be involved in the commission of fraud in trade. From this point of view, serious criminal penalties protect the Italian consumers from any misleading advertisement on the origin, provenance, and quality of goods illegally sold. But even CFOs, accounting and financial control functions could be involved in the commission of a corporate crime. Think about the (several) criminal trials for tax offenses, very trendy in Italy these days: tax criminal law has become, after all, a tool used by the legal system to recover revenue not collected in the ordinary way. And think, also, about the accounting fraud: the risk, on this field, is represented by consultancies or other services provided to the company, which may be considered fictitious, that is aimed at creating slush funds useful for the perpetration of other offences (such as, once again, bribery). HSE and HR functions, as well, may be involved in a white collar crime. In this regard, criminal labour law and environmental criminal law, respectively arise from a deep national culture of care for worker safety and from a widespread awareness of environmental issues. These branches of law require compliance with numerous technical and legal standards, whose compatibility with the free economic initiative has been doubted, but is still currently in force. Lastly, management control functions may be involved in committing money laundering operations. This kind of offences are historically linked to the fight against the reutilization in the legal economy of dirty capital, WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 11 Danilo Cilia Founder of Danilo Cilia & Associati
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