Most people do not want to have very close contact with criminal law unless they are professionally linked to this area of law being a lawyer, attorney or judge. However, it is sometimes not so difficult to end up in a situation where one has to deal with criminal allegations.
Your risks as Managing Director
Overview of main offenses
If you are employed in a ltd. of Polish law in function of CEO or member of the executive board of a joint-stock company, you’ll find the following statements interesting for sure. The Polish economic criminal law contains a number of provisions which should be followed to avoid conflicts with the polish criminal law. This includes in addition to the (classical) offenses of corruption, embezzlement or fraud, in particular provisions in the field of criminal acts against the commercial trade (prevention or reduction of creditor satisfaction – art. 300 of the Polish Penal Code, fraudulent trading (bankruptcy) – Art. 301 of the Polish Penal Code and fraudulent preference of creditors – art. 302 of the Polish Penal Code), or the insolvency law and here, in particular, the criminal act of delaying insolvency proceedings – art. 586 of The Commercial Companies Code.
Furthermore, other law acts also include criminal law provisions, with which you as a manager of a Polish ltd. or as a board member of a Polish company should be familiar with. This includes in particular the provisions of the tax criminal code and the Accounting Law (e.g. as the absence of notification of the end-of-year reports to the register court – art. 79 of the Accounting Law) as well as the criminal provisions of the Polish Competition Law and the corresponding provisions in the laws for the protection of intellectual property.
Investigation in the Polish criminal procedure
Preliminary proceedings will be conducted to determine whether a criminal offense of the Polish Penal Law has been realized. If this is the case, the Office of the public prosecutor and the police acting on his behalf have to secure the existing evidence in the respective matter for the subsequent court proceedings. One of the applied measures is to carry out a search of the premises, where the presence of objects is suspected that could serve as factual evidence in the current investigation.
Another possibility for the collection of evidence is the interrogation of the accused, as well as a witness. While the accused is not obliged to make any statements, the witness has generally the right to refuse to provide information only in cases as envisaged in the Polish Criminal Procedure Code.
Your risks as a private person
Also a private person can encounter the Polish Criminal Law more easily than expected. A traffic accident with personal injury in Poland is enough for the Polish State Prosecutor to step in. The presented above for the management of Polish subsidiaries applies to private persons in a corresponding manner.
In criminal matters, the establishment of a quick contact with a lawyer (defence lawyer), who specializes in the Polish Criminal Law and Criminal Proceedings is extremely important. Remember in this context that in case of emergency, it is your freedom and your assets that are at stake and of course also the interests and needs of your relatives.