To facilitate the criminal judgment execution process with respect to commercial legal entities, the Government had issued Decree no. 44/2020/ND-CP (hereinafter referred to as “Decree no.44”) and Decree no. 55/2020/ND-CP (hereinafter referred to as “Decree no. 55”), respectively on April 08th, 2020, and May 22nd, 2020.
Decree no. 44 determines principles, measures, procedures of coercive judgment execution as prescribed in Law on criminal judgment execution. Those measures include:
- Freezing bank accounts;
- Distraint of property with a corresponding value enforcement amount (property distraint);
- Temporarily seizing documents, vouchers, devices containing electronic data; temporarily seizing or withdrawing seals of commercial legal entities.
In addition, the application of coercive judgment execution to commercial legal entities must follow these below principles:
- The coercion shall be effected only when there is a written decision of the competent criminal judgment-executing agency.
- Decisions on the application of coercive measures must be made based on penalties, judicial measures, contents, properties, extent, conditions of execution and the specified local situation.
- The time limit for application of coercive measures must not exceed the time limit for serving the penalties under the legally effective judgments or decisions of the Court; the time limit is determined when the judicial measures are completed.
- A commercial legal entity may be subject to one or several coercive measures at the same time if the application of a coercive measure does not ensure the judgment execution.
- Ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of commercial legal entities, organizations and individuals involved in the execution.
Decree no. 55 also details the order and procedures for executing criminal sentences of commercial legal entities as follows:
- Receive judgments, decisions on execution;
- Determining the agency responsible for judgment execution;
- Convene the legal representative of the legal entity to notify and request the judgment execution;
- Record of judgment execution;
- Announcement of decisions on judgment execution, certificates of completion of sentence, certificates of completion of judicial measures;
- Examining and supervising commercial legal entities during the execution of judgments;
- Granting certificates of completion of penalty execution, certificates of completion of judicial measures.
As the demand for criminal judgment enforcement of commercial legal entities has become increasingly high, in order to facilitate the execution process, the Government has issued two important decrees guiding the determination of the order, procedures, and coercive measures for the execution.