The ruling addresses how a company can become aware of criminal convictions that result in disqualification from holding management positions.
On March 13, 2026, the 4th Guarantee Court of Santiago, in Case No. Ordinary-917-2025, convicted a sales executive of a company specializing in providing technology solutions for the crimes of disclosure of trade secrets and unlawful access to a computer system.
This was for accessing his employer’s internal computer platform, from which he carried out a series of mass downloads of reports containing sensitive confidential information about prospects and clients, and then proceeded to delete them from the same platform. This occurred immediately after he submitted his voluntary resignation to the company.
The conviction was based on two criminal offenses that until recently were uncommon in disputes of this nature, and which today, with the new list of offenses introduced by the Economic Crimes Act (Law No. 21,595), may carry greater consequences, including imprisonment, fines, and disqualification from holding managerial and public office.
The crime of disclosure of trade secrets recognizes that a company’s strategic information deserves criminal protection, safeguarding a company’s competitive capacity in the market.
For its part, the crime of unlawful access to a computer system penalizes not only an external attacker but also an internal one who accesses the company’s own systems beyond their authorized scope.
As a result of committing these offenses, the defendant was sentenced to 541 days of medium-security imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine. Additionally, he was sentenced to ancillary penalties, including disqualification from holding public office for the duration of the sentence, a prohibition on contracting with the government, and disqualification from holding managerial positions, the latter two for a period of three years.
In this regard, this ruling brings to light an issue that criminal law does not resolve, and puts pressure on the criteria of the Labor Directorate (DT), which rejects the requirement for criminal background checks in hiring processes.
Indeed, the DT’s current doctrine states that:
“3. The requirement of criteria, information, or certificates that reveal background information not strictly related to a person’s capacity and suitability for the duties to be performed constitutes a violation of the guarantee of the right to non-discrimination, both in the context of job offers, labor relations, and their termination.”
Furthermore, the Labor Directorate itself has reiterated that such a requirement is only appropriate in isolated cases, such as work with minors or people with disabilities (Ordinance 628 of February 3, 2017), and teaching positions (Ordinance 5818 of December 5, 2016).
Consequently, the administrative body has restricted this authority of the employer or prospective employer to very special cases.
Thus, this ruling raises a question to be resolved, which boils down to how a company becomes aware of a criminal conviction that entails disqualification from holding managerial positions, where the suitability of the employee is directly linked to not having committed economic crimes or being subject to legal disqualifications.
Thus, the ruling not only sanctions individual conduct but also calls for rethinking the standards of prevention, compliance, and risk assessment in the management of personnel within organizations
For more information on these topics, please consult our Labor and Criminal teams:
Gabriel Zaliasnik | Partner | gzaliasnik@az.cl
Jorge Arredondo | Partner | jarredondo@az.cl
Jocelyn Aros | Labor Group Director | jaros@az.cl
Loreto Hoyos | Criminal Litigation Group Director | lhoyos@az.cl
Felipe Neira | Labor Group Senior Associate | fneira@az.cl
Palmira Valdivia | Labor Group Associate | pvaldivia@az.cl
Manuel Sepúlveda | Labor Group Associate | msepulveda@az.cl
Catalina Díaz | Labor Group Associate | cdiazp@az.cl
Clemente Soulodre | Criminal Litigation Group Associate | csoulodre@az.cl
Denisse Morales | Criminal Litigation Group Associate | dmorales@az.cl
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