Misappropriation (Art. 646)

Misappropriation (Art. 646)

Misappropriation arises when a person appropriates money or goods belonging to others of which they have possession, in order to procure for themselves or others an unjust profit.

In the context of business activity, the offence may concern directors, executives or other individuals who, having the availability of company assets or resources, allocate them to purposes extraneous to the corporate interest, distorting the proper management of corporate assets.

Investigation Structure

Criminal investigation requires verification of the existence of qualified possession of the goods by the subject, the actual appropriation thereof and the achievement of an unjust profit. It is also necessary to ascertain the subjective element, represented by the intent to appropriate, i.e. the will to make another's property one's own.

Defence Method

The defence is based on the precise reconstruction of the patrimonial operations and management decisions in question, with the objective of distinguishing between legitimate use of corporate resources and actually appropriative conduct. In corporate criminal law, the analysis of the corporate context and the methods of asset management takes on particular importance, avoiding management dynamics or civil law disputes being improperly transferred to the criminal sphere.