A complex of measures preventing the business identity thefts, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, have been adopted or are in process of adoption. The measures will be introduced through amendments in several legal acts, including the Commercial Act and the Criminal Code. The main measures are as follows:
- introduction of more rigorous form for validity of the documents required for the transfer of commercial enterprise and shares – notary verification both on signatures and content of the respective document.
- connection between the Commercial register and the Register of the Notary Chamber, enabling registry officials to check in real time the authenticity of the documents submitted in relation to the registration of shares transfer, change of the company managers and others.
- criminal liability for business identity theft – a new corpus delicti called “company usurpation” is introduced in the Criminal Code. The respective penalty will be from 1 to 6 years imprisonment, and in cases of large material damage sustained are provided aggravated cases of the crime.
Part of the changes have been adopted – in SG 12 of 12.02.2016 were published amendments to Ordinance №32 for the official archives of the notaries and the notarial offices and Ordinance №1 for the keeping, storage and access to the commercial register, while the changes to the Commercial Act and the Criminal Code are under discussion and will be adopted soon. In parallel, the work continues on the preparation of the Instruction for interaction between the Notary Chamber, the Registry Agency and the banks to provide access to the system, maintained by the Notary Chamber, the adoption of which is envisaged in the amended Ordinance №32.