After a long gestation, the text of the new anti-corruption bill arrives from the minister Andrea Orlando, which contains the new rules on false accounting and on self-laundering.
As for the first chapter, it reintroduces the ability to proceed ex officio by magistrates, a principle abolished with the decriminalization of the crime carried out in 2001 by the second Berlusconi government. However, there are some exceptions, and they are not insignificant: prosecutors can only move following a complaint "from the company, partners or creditors" for small businesses. Furthermore, the fact is not punishable "if the falsehoods or omissions have not led to a significant alteration of the representation of the economic, equity or financial situation of the company or group to which it belongs".
The standard onself-laundering, on the other hand, is introduced for the first time in our penal code, but in a much less incisive version than that of the original text, probably due to pressure from Forza Italia and Nuovo Centrodestra. Now the law provides for punishing with a sentence from two to eight years in prison and a fine from 5 thousand to 25 thousand euros only those who reinvest the money resulting from "a culpable crime punished with imprisonment of no less than a maximum of 5 years", in the sense that magistrates will be granted a double action: against the initial crime and against the activities financed with the proceeds of the initial crime.
The definition contained in the new text, however, excludes the second possibility for crimes typical of launderers such as fraud, embezzlement and irregularities in the tax return, which are punishable by a maximum of three years. The Berlusconi wanted to go even further, demanding that the crime be contestable only for crimes involving the mafia and drug trafficking. It was this tug of war that blocked the anti-corruption bill for weeks.
