Article 432 of the Penal Code refers to those authorities or public officials who have committed a crime of “patrimonial damage” on public property, for whom prison sentences of up to between 2 and 6 years in prisonand disqualification for public office between six and 10 years. The same penalties are provided for those who commit misappropriation of public property.
The union of both behaviors -unfair administration and misappropriation- in the same article, and associated with the same penalties, was made in 2015, at the proposal of the PP then in the Government. The criminal type contained aggravated penalties of up to eight years in certain circumstances, such as hindering public services or that the value of the damage caused exceeded 50,000 euros. If this amount exceeded 250,000 euros, the penalty would always be imposed in its higher degree. This means that the penalty can reach up to 12 years in prison.
The following article, 433, refers to minor cases, in which the diverted does not exceed 4,000 euros, for which the prison does not exceed two years. Other cases are also contemplated for which only disqualification penalties are applied, referring to accounting distortions or providing false information to third parties regarding the economic situation. If economic damage is caused to the entity, the penalties provided are from 1 to 4 years.
A third article, 434, refers to the cases in which the guilty of embezzlement would have effectively repaired and full damage or had collaborated in the investigation. In these cases, the corresponding penalty is the lower one or two degrees.