Safety protection of cooperatives functioning in the context of criminal liability of members of its bodies

Abstract

The article presents the issues of protecting the security of cooperatives functioning against threats resulting from the criminal behavior of members of its bodies, which is penalized in the Cooperative Law and in the law on housing co-operatives.

The organs of the cooperative are: the general meeting or the meeting of representatives, the board of directors, the board, and the cooperatives in which the general meeting is replaced by the gathering of representatives - a meeting of member groups. The statute may provide for the appointment of other bodies composed of members of the cooperative.

The article is an attempt to analyze selected prohibited acts which are the basis of responsibility of members of cooperative bodies, in particular the management board and the supervisory board. Criminal liability of members of cooperative bodies is provided for in the following provisions: from cooperative law: art. 267b – a failure to report for bankruptcy, art. 267c – a failure to comply with obligations related to lustration, art. 267d – an announcement of false data of cooperatives, from the Act on housing co-operatives: art. 27³ – a failure to provide documentation of cooperatives and untimely settlement of construction costs. The provisions presented contain sanctions primarily for acts that are covered by analogous liability in relation to members of capital bodies of commercial companies, which, like cooperatives, are legal persons, which is dictated by the normative, organizational and functional similarity of running a business as a cooperative and in the form of commercial companies or for acts covered by the specificity of cooperative law, in particular concerning one of the most popular types of cooperatives, that is, housing cooperatives, which harm the proper functioning of cooperatives.