Economic crime
White-collar crime
Criminal advice and defense in economic and corporate crime: internal investigations, criminal complaints, and defense of executives and of the company itself as a legal entity.
Vera Gutiérrez Abogados · Santiago, Chile
White-collar crime and compliance counsel in Chile
Advice and defense in economic crime, corporate Crime Prevention Models, personal data protection and corporate law. Technical rigour, direct access to the lawyer and strict confidentiality.
- In practice since
- 2021
- Reply to enquiries
- 24 h
- Coverage, with video meetings
- All of Chile
- Initial assessment meeting, free of charge
- 30 min
Practice areas
One legal approach applied to the risks that today drive the criminal, regulatory and reputational exposure of a company and of those who run it.
Law 20.393 · Compliance
Crime Prevention Model
Design, implementation and updating of corporate Crime Prevention Models under Law 20.393, as amended by the Economic Crimes Law (Law 21.595).
Law 21.719
Personal data protection
Compliance with Chile's new data protection law: records of processing, lawful bases, policies, processor agreements, data subject rights and breach management.
Law 21.643
Ley Karin and employment compliance
Prevention protocols and investigation procedures for workplace harassment, sexual harassment and violence at work required by Law 21.643 (Ley Karin).
Corporate
Corporate law
Company, contract and corporate governance advice as an outsourced legal department: entities, contracts, conflicts of interest and counterparty due diligence.
SMEs
Legal advice for SMEs
Compliance scaled to the real size of the business: assessment, priorities and a work plan with a defined scope and fixed fees.
Legal risk for companies in Chile has changed in scale.
In just a few years, Chilean law has multiplied the offences for which a legal entity can be held criminally liable, created a data protection authority with sanctioning powers and required every employer to adopt harassment prevention protocols.
The answer is not more manuals. It is understanding where the real exposure lies and organising the business around it.
- Economic Crimes Law (Law 21.595)
Since 1 September 2024, corporate criminal liability covers more than two hundred offences, and only an effectively implemented prevention model can exempt the company.
- Data Protection Law (Law 21.719)
The new regime becomes fully effective on 1 December 2026, with a Personal Data Protection Agency and fines of up to 20,000 UTM.
- Law 21.643 (Ley Karin)
Every employer must have a prevention protocol and an investigation procedure for workplace harassment, sexual harassment and violence at work.
- Directors and officers
Management decisions are exposed both in criminal proceedings and in the assessment of whether the prevention model was effective.
About
A strong defense begins long before any proceeding: in how decisions are made inside the company.
Gonzalo Vera Gutiérrez is a lawyer from Universidad Austral de Chile, where he graduated first in his class, and the founding partner of Vera Gutiérrez Abogados. He is completing a Master's in Economic Criminal Law at Universidad San Sebastián and holds a Corporate Compliance Certification from the Chilean Ethics and Compliance Association (ACEC) and Universidad Diego Portales.
His practice combines criminal defense with the design and operation of compliance programs, drawing on first-hand experience as a crime prevention officer and as a trial lawyer since 2021.
Gonzalo Vera GutiérrezAttorney · Founding partner
How we work
Every engagement has a defined scope, deliverables and fees from the outset.
First meeting
Understand the matter
A 30-minute confidential call to identify the issue and its urgency.
Assessment
Measure the exposure
Review of facts, processes and documents to determine real risks and priorities.
Proposal
Scope and fees
A written work plan with stages, timelines and a clear price. No open-ended quotes.
Execution
Ongoing support
Direct access to the responsible lawyer throughout the engagement, with regular reporting.
Advice in English for foreign companies in Chile
We assist foreign-owned subsidiaries, investors and international groups in understanding and meeting Chilean compliance obligations, with meetings and deliverables in English or Spanish.
- Local compliance for global programs
Adapting a group-wide compliance program to the specific requirements of Law 20.393 and Law 21.595.
- Data protection gap analysis
Aligning GDPR-based practices with Chile's Law 21.719 before its full entry into force.
- Our insights are published in Spanish
Our blog covers Chilean regulatory developments in Spanish.
Let's talk about your matter before it becomes a problem.
A 30-minute initial video call to understand the situation, identify the main risks and explain which course of action makes sense. No commitment, and fully confidential.