Breach of trust under article 475 of the Belgian Criminal Code

Article 475 of the Belgian Criminal Code punishes the misappropriation or dissipation, with fraudulent intent and to the detriment of another, of movable property with economic value. The property must have been handed to the offender under an obligation to return it or to use it for a specified purpose. The offender therefore held the property before he misappropriated it. Without that handover there is no offence under article 475.

The law attaches a level 3 penalty to this offence. For a legal person, article 38 of the Criminal Code sets a fine at that level of more than 360,000 euros up to 600,000 euros. Those are the amounts in the statutory text. The surcharge decimes of the Law of 5 March 1952 come on top, so the final figure is higher.

The new Criminal Code has applied since 1 September 2026. For facts before that day the Criminal Code of 8 June 1867 still governs, unless the new law is more favourable to the offender. The former article 491 punished the same act with imprisonment of one month to five years and a fine of 26 to 500 euros, to be increased by the surcharge decimes. Every file is therefore read twice. The date of the facts decides which law applies.

The line runs at the moment the offender received the property. Article 479 punishes fraud by deception: seeking, with fraudulent intent, to obtain an unlawful economic advantage for oneself or for another, either by using false names or false capacities, or by employing deceitful contrivances to win another’s confidence by stealth. Article 475 requires no contrivance. There the property has already been handed over. Both offences carry a level 3 penalty. We wrote earlier about what fraud by deception is.

The Criminal Code contains two neighbouring offences. Article 476 punishes the misuse of company assets: the director in fact or in law of a legal person governed by private law who, with fraudulent intent, directly or indirectly uses the assets or the credit of that legal person for personal ends, while knowing that this significantly harms the financial interests of the legal person and those of its creditors or members. Article 451 punishes forgery of documents and the use of forged documents. Those two also carry level 3. Anyone who then conceals or converts the proceeds ends up under article 502, which punishes money laundering.

Anyone who claims to have suffered loss through an offence may lodge a complaint with the competent investigating judge and bring a civil party claim. That complaint with a civil party claim itself opens a judicial investigation (article 63 of the Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure). The claim remains possible at any stage of the proceedings, until the debates are closed (article 67). A company that only wants its loss recorded files a declaration of injured person with the public prosecutor or the police (article 5bis of the preliminary title).

The civil party is a directly interested party. It may therefore request access to the criminal file: from the public prosecutor during the preliminary inquiry, and from the investigating judge during the judicial investigation.

A protective attachment holds the assets while the investigation runs. It requires urgency, a claim that is certain and due and that is established or capable of provisional assessment, and an application to the attachment judge. That application is ruled on no later than eight days after it is filed. A protective attachment in the hands of a third party can be laid without prior judicial authorisation, on the basis of authentic or private documents, by a bailiff.

Where the offender is your own employee, article 18 of the Law of 3 July 1978 on employment contracts applies. An employee is liable towards his employer and towards third parties only for his fraud and his gross negligence, and for slight negligence only where it is habitual rather than accidental in his case. Anyone who commits fraud himself acts with deceit or at least with gross negligence, so that limitation does not shelter him. It does shelter the colleagues who contributed through carelessness. A fraud assessment maps out your investigative options, and the fraud investigation runs through to the recovery of the loss.

A person questioned as a suspect receives the rights of article 47bis, paragraph 2, of the Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure beforehand. These include a confidential consultation with a lawyer before the police interview and the assistance of that lawyer during it. A conviction may not be based on statements made in breach of that right. We provide assistance at the police interview.

The company and the director stand side by side in the file. A legal person is criminally liable for offences that have an intrinsic connection with the realisation of its object or with the pursuit of its interests, or that were committed on its account (article 18 of the Criminal Code). That liability does not exclude the liability of the natural person. No one is criminally liable other than for his own conduct (article 16). Where the prosecution covers the company and its representative for the same facts, the competent court appoints an ad hoc representative.

The public prosecutor may propose a criminal settlement as long as the act does not appear to warrant a main penalty of more than two years’ imprisonment or a heavier penalty for a natural person, and a fine of more than 360,000 euros for a legal person. The loss caused to another must then be fully compensated. If the offender pays the sum, that payment counts before the civil court as an irrebuttable presumption of fault. Our page on the criminal defence of the company sets out the next steps, and the page for those suspected of fraud describes how such a file unfolds.

The difference lies in the moment at which the offender received the property. In a breach of trust, the property had already been handed to him, with the obligation to return it or to use it for a specified purpose (article 475). In fraud by deception, the offender obtains the advantage precisely through false names, false capacities or deceitful contrivances (article 479). Both offences carry a level 3 penalty.

A level 3 penalty. For a legal person, article 38 of the Criminal Code sets a fine at that level of more than 360,000 euros up to 600,000 euros. Those are the amounts in the statutory text, without the surcharge decimes of the Law of 5 March 1952. For facts before 1 September 2026 the former article 491 still applies, with imprisonment of one month to five years and a fine of 26 to 500 euros, to be increased by the surcharge decimes.

Yes. Anyone who claims to have suffered loss through an offence may lodge a complaint with the competent investigating judge and bring a civil party claim (article 63 of the Belgian Code of Criminal Procedure). That complaint itself opens a judicial investigation. The claim remains possible at any stage of the proceedings, until the debates are closed (article 67). As a civil party you are a directly interested party and may request access to the criminal file.

Yes. A legal person is criminally liable for offences that have an intrinsic connection with the realisation of its object or with the pursuit of its interests, or that were committed on its account (article 18 of the Criminal Code). The third paragraph of that article states that this liability does not exclude the liability of the natural person. Where the prosecution covers both for the same facts, the competent court appoints an ad hoc representative.