The Firm

For over 25 years (since 1997) Ruiz Filho Advogados has been exclusively dedicated to criminal law. During this period, in order to offer high standard services in this specialty, he has been working on the scientific and cultural development of his team and on the constant improvement of the professional practices he performs.

Trained to work in the broad spectrum of interests and professionals in Criminal Law, the lawyers who are part of them follow the most resistant canons of the profession. Ethics and discretion, combined with tenacity in results with the competence acquired are values that guide and consolidate the history of Ruiz Filho Advogados. Our mission is to work incessantly to guarantee and protect the rights of our customers.

Expertise

Ruiz Filho Advogados works exclusively in the area of criminal law, a specialty that its members have been dedicating themselves to during years of militancy and continued study.

The phenomenon of the “expansion of criminal law” is at the center of legal discussions around the world.

This segment of law, which traditionally sanctioned harmful conduct recognized by society, has become a powerful instrument of state and political intervention, often surprisingly broadening common sense and conservative notions of criminality.

Currently, in addition to general matters, it covers, for example, the criminal protection of diffuse interests and Corporate Criminal Law, giving rise to modern criminalization such as the environment, consumer relations, economic order, financial system, money laundering, etc.

In Brazil, the production of special criminal laws has intensified, on the one hand, as a way to appease violent crime and, on the other, to prevent the escalation of crime in the field of business, a constant and growing target of new laws and criminal prosecution.

Aware of this reality, Ruiz Filho Advogados, through its team, provides services in the entire scope of criminal law, and is able to face the most diverse situations, aiming to protect the rights of the individual and the company.

In these more than 25 years of activity, we have had the opportunity to act towards several courts in the country, dealing with numerous topics, such as:

Bankruptcy
Crimes

Bankruptcy crimes are provided for in Law No. 11,101/05, in arts. 168 to 178, and has the main purpose of protecting the assets and the bankruptcy procedure and judicial or extrajudicial recovery. Its process runs before the Bankruptcy Court, thus requiring synergy between the procedures and parties, both in civil and criminal actions.

Money smuggling

Provided for in art. 22 and sole paragraph of Law No. 7,492/86, it is a type of crime against the national financial system related to three main conducts: unauthorized foreign exchange operation with the purpose of promoting the evasion of currency from the country; promoting, without legal authorization, the outflow of values ​​abroad; maintenance of undeclared deposits abroad.

The communication to the authorities must be made by all individuals and legal entities with assets that total an amount equal to or greater than US$ 1,000,000.00 (one million US dollars), in accordance with CMN 4,814/20, through the Annual Declaration of Brazilian Capitals Abroad (DCBE) directed to the Central Bank – BACEN. It is also necessary to declare to the IRS the ownership of values ​​in dollars or other foreign currencies.

Without a declaration, the amount that can be carried on international trips is US$ 10,000.00 (ten thousand US dollars) or its equivalent in reais, according to specific legislation, in addition to allowing purchases up to US$ 500.00 (five hundred US dollars), all subject to to the understanding of the customs authorities, which always advises caution.

Cyber
crimes

Broad concept of crimes in which the agent uses the world wide web to commit crimes. These crimes have been included in the Penal Code itself, as a reaction to the rise and popularization of conduct of this nature. This is the case of crimes of electronic theft (art. 155, §4o-B) and electronic fraud (art. 171, §2o-A), according toc Law No. 14.155/2021, as well as the crime of breaking into a computer device ( art. 154-A), Law No. 12,737/2012 (Carolina Dieckmann Law).

Crimes
against bids and administrative contracts

Title XI, Chapter II-B of the Penal Code

Previously provided for in Law No. 8,666/93 and revoked by the new Bidding Law (Law No. 14,133/2021), which included them in the Penal Code (arts. 337-E/337-P). Such crimes encompass the wide spectrum of illicit conduct practiced within the scope of administrative bids and contracts signed by the Public Administration or entities subject to the bidding, such as illegal direct contracting, sponsorship of improper contracting, frustration of the competitive nature of the bidding, modification or irregular payment in an administrative contract, among others.

Crime
against the administration of justice

Title XI, Chapter III of the Penal Code

These are crimes committed against bodies of the Judiciary, such as slanderous denunciation (initiating proceedings against someone, charging him with a crime of which he is known to be innocent), false witness (it is no longer punishable if the agent retracts before the sentence), fraud procedural (in order to mislead the judge or expert), among others, provided for in arts. 338 to 359 of the Penal Code.

Crimes
against public administration

Title XI, Chapters I, II and II-A of the Penal Code

Provided for in arts. 312 to 337-D of the Penal Code, encompass embezzlement (appropriation due to the position through diversion, misuse of public goods, in addition to culpable conduct), concussion (defined by the demand for advantages by the public official by virtue of the function) and corruption passive (requesting or receiving undue advantages due to the position).

They also include crimes committed by private individuals, such as active corruption (offering an undue advantage or promise of an undue advantage to a public official in order to avoid the practice of official acts), in addition to smuggling and embezzlement, related to the importation of prohibited or illegal goods. without paying taxes.

Crimes
against public faith

Title X of the Penal Code

Provided for in arts. 289 to 311-A of the Penal Code, violate the collective feeling of veracity of certain information, acts, symbols and documents of legal interest, as well as falsifications and ideological falsehood, configured through the omission, in a public or private document, of statement that should be included in it, insertion of a false statement or different from the one that should be written, with the purpose of harming the right, creating an obligation or altering the truth about a legally relevant fact.

Crimes
against honor

Title I, Chapter V of the Penal Code

They are provided for in the Penal Code, in arts. 139/140. Exception to the rule, slander, defamation and slander are crimes of private criminal action, since the claimant is the victim or his legal representative, and not the Public Prosecutor’s Office, like most other crimes, whose criminal action is unconditional public, when the impulse is official and independent of the will of the parties, or by means of representation, which consists of unlocking the criminal prosecution by the manifestation of the victim’s will.

The types of slander (attribution of a criminal act against the innocent) and defamation violate the objective honor of the offended party, which is the external view of their qualities, demanding the imputation of a determined fact. On the other hand, subjective honor, that is, the judgment of each one about himself, is protected by the crime of injury.

Injury related to race, for example, has a greater penalty and the action, in these cases, becomes public, but conditioned to the representation of the offended.

Crimes
against tax, economic and consumer relations

Law No. 8,137/90 defines crimes against tax, economic and consumer relations, and other provisions.

Chapter II of this Law, “crimes against the economy and consumer relations”, in addition to the conduct described in art. 4, I and II, has its wording completed by Law No. 12,529/11, which provides for the prevention and repression of infractions against the economic order.

Crimes related to non-payment of taxes are divided into two types regarding their practice by individuals or public officials. They constitute a source of problems for the individual and for companies in general, given the complexity of our tax system.

In addition, tax evasion crimes present significant difficulties for the regular exercise of defense (see articles we publish on the subject): https://www.migalhas.com.br/depeso/350943/crimes-fiscais-dificuldades-para-comprovacao-da-inocencia; https://aaspsite.blob.core.windows.net/aaspsite/2022/06/Antonio-Ruiz-Filho-e-Leticia-Mendes-Rodrigues.pdf).

Crimes
against life and bodily harm

Title I, Chapters I and II of the Penal Code

Willful conduct requires intention, willingness to practice the conduct typified as a crime. There are four intentional crimes against life: homicide, inducing, instigating or aiding suicide, infanticide and abortion outside the legally permitted hypotheses (to save the life of the pregnant woman, in pregnancy resulting from rape and due to fetal anencephaly, in this case, as decision of the STF in the judgment of ADPF no 54). There is still the eventual deceit, when the agent assumes the risk of producing the result. These crimes are judged by a popular jury.

Guilty crimes occur without intention, but due to imprudence, negligence or malpractice and are tried before the common justice or by the Special Criminal Courts, and are distinguished from each other, in relation to the competence to judge, by the amount of the penalty resulting from the crimes charged.

Corporate
crimes, criminal association and criminal organization

Art. 288 of the Penal Code

Corporate crimes are those committed by one or more partners of a legal entity, being common the accusation of partners, representatives or legal representatives of a company who did not interact with the facts, which is prohibited by our Criminal Law, as it constitutes objective liability. or “by contract”. In addition, theories such as mastery of fact or willful blindness are often used to cover up the lack of evidence. And yet, the accusation is made by generic complaints, which do not sufficiently describe the conduct of each accused in the undertaking considered criminal, thus harming the regular exercise of the right of defense.

The criminal association – the former gang crime, which required at least four people in the practice of conduct considered criminal – today requires only three participants, according to the current wording of art. 288 of the Penal Code.

And four members in the imputation of belonging to a criminal organization – art. 1, § 1, of Law 12.850/13, which also regulates the plea bargain. It should be noted that the imputation of being part of a criminal organization has been trivialized and frequently used to aggravate the criminal situation of those accused of financial or similar crimes, almost always without the presence of other essential elements to the configuration of this criminal type, such as habituality, division of tasks of hierarchical manner, criminal activity as an objective, in addition to other typical essential characteristics to be considered in order to attribute just cause to criminal prosecution.

Crimes
against individual liberty

Title I, Chapter VI, Section I of the Penal Code

These are, for example, the crimes of illegal constraint and threat (this requires representation of the victim), provided for in the Penal Code by arts. 146 to 149.

Law No. 14,132/2021 added art. 147-A to the Penal Code, thus providing for the crime of stalking or stalking, which consists of harassing someone, repeatedly and by any means, threatening their physical or psychological integrity, restricting their ability to move or, in any way, way, invading or disturbing their sphere of freedom or privacy.

Crimes
against industrial property, trademarks and patents and unfair competition

Provided for by Law No. 9,279/96, they are intended to protect invention and utility model patents, industrial design, trademarks and registration of geographical indications, and to prevent unfair competition (Article 195 of the Law has XIV items to indicate the conduct likely to characterize the crime in question).

The process and judgment of crimes against intangible property are provided for by arts. 524 et seq. of the Criminal Procedure Code, with specific deadlines and procedures.

Crimes
against public health

Title VIII, Chapter III of the Penal Code

It criminalizes conduct that causes danger or potentially harmful to collective health, physical, mental and organic normality of an indeterminate number of people. However, in relation to some of the conducts provided for in this chapter, there is a total disproportionate between the sentence imposed and the injured property. For example, art. 273 of the Penal Code provides for a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years, which is not justified, despite the importance of the legally protected asset, allowing the imposition of excessively high penalties for conduct of little relevance.

Crimes
against the environment

https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9605.htm

Crimes against the environment are provided for in Law No. 9,605/98, which provides for criminal and administrative sanctions deriving from conduct and activities that are harmful to this important good for humanity. It seeks to protect flora, fauna, natural resources and cultural heritage. Environmental crimes are attacks on the environment that go beyond the limits established by law.

the art. 225, § 3, of the Federal Constitution allows the criminal liability of the legal entity for the practice of activities considered harmful to the environment, regardless of the obligation to repair the damage caused, exception to the rule that Criminal Law is intended to punish the conduct of individuals .

Crimes
against property

Title II of the Penal Code

Any criminal action that attacks the property of others can be considered as a crime against property, and the legal interest protected in this title is anything that has patrimonial value.

The offenses are those traditionally known, such as robbery, theft, embezzlement and extortion. But they also involve crimes of damage, misappropriation and reception (this can be intentional or negligent). Property crimes are provided for in art. 155 et seq. of the Penal Code.

Crimes
against the national financial system

Law 7,492/86, also known as the White Collar Crimes Law, defines crimes against the National Financial System (SFN), which is formed by the set of entities and institutions that promote financial intermediation in the country. The crimes are provided for in arts. 2nd to 23rd of the Law. Examples are the crimes of fraudulent or reckless management of a financial institution, in addition to other frauds and the evasion of foreign exchange, provided for in art. 22.

Money
laundering crimes

Law No. 12,683/12 amended Law No. 9,613/98, with the debatable objective of making the criminal prosecution of money laundering crimes more efficient. Among other measures, it provides for crimes of “laundering” or concealment of assets, rights and values, and the prevention of the use of the financial system for the illicit activities provided for in the Law.

The process and judgment of these crimes are independent of the process and judgment of previous criminal offenses, which is why the mere existence of evidence of the practice of “criminal offense” authorizes the process to investigate the occurrence of the crime of money laundering, according to precedents of the STF and the STJ. Thus, the possibility that there has been a predicate crime, of any nature (there is no longer an exhaustive list of predicate crimes), can generate the arbitrary imputation of money laundering, also known as money laundering.

Minor
offensive potential crimes

It comprises those crimes for which the law imposes a maximum penalty of not more than 2 years and all criminal misdemeanors. The competence for conciliation, judgment and execution of criminal offenses of lesser offensive potential, according to Law No. 9,099/95, belongs to the Special Criminal Court.

There is the possibility of compensation for damages with the victim and a criminal transaction with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but this benefit cannot be used again within 5 years (arts. 72 and 76, II, of Law 9099/95).

Article 89 of the Law provides that, in crimes where the minimum sentence imposed is equal to or less than one year, the process may be suspended for a period of two to four years, provided that the accused is not being prosecuted or has not been convicted. for another crime, and the other requirements that would authorize the conditional suspension of the sentence (the probation), provided for in article 77 of the Penal Code, are present.

Traffic
crimes

Law No. 9,503/97 created the Brazilian Traffic Code. The crimes related therein are provided for in arts. 302 to 312 and can be punished with a fine, suspension of the right to drive, prohibition of obtaining this right and even detention in an open or semi-open regime, with special attention to art. 306 (driving under the influence of alcohol) and art. 307 (driving without a license, violating suspension or prohibition).

Electoral
crimes

Law No. 4,737/65 instituted the Electoral Code, whose crimes are typified in arts. 289 to 354-A. Electoral crimes can be committed by voters and candidates, and are punishable by imprisonment, detention and/or fine.

Recently, by decision of the STF, criminal actions that were previously within its competence were redistributed to the Electoral Justice: “It is for the electoral justice to judge electoral crimes and the common crimes that are related to it” (Complaint 43.130 AGR/RJ – STF).

Drugs
Law

Law nº 11,343/06, also known as the Drug Law, among other measures, prescribes measures to prevent misuse, care and social reintegration of drug users and addicts, as well as defines crimes and the special procedure for their processing. .

For the purposes of this Law, substances or products capable of causing dependence, as specified by law or listed in lists periodically updated by the Executive Power of the Union, are considered as drugs. This list is currently the responsibility of ANVISA – in addition to the Criminal Law, which is considered a blank criminal norm, depending on this indication.

According to art. 28 of the Drug Law, there will be no penalty of imprisonment and detention for anyone who acquires, keeps, has in storage, transports or brings with them, for personal consumption, drugs without authorization or in disagreement with legal determination. The agent will only be punished with a warning about the effects of drugs, provision of services to the community or educational measure to attend an educational program or course, or verbal admonition and fine in case of non-compliance with the former.

There has been disparity in the understanding of the courts on the application of art. 33, § 4, of the Law, which refers to the so-called “privileged trafficking”, a form of easing the penalty for less serious conduct, whose conditions are described by the Law. The STJ understands that, in these cases, such conduct cannot be equated with heinous crimes, with the substitution of the custodial sentence for a restriction of rights.

Maria da Penha
Law

Law nº 11.340/06, also known as Maria da Penha Law, aims to combat domestic and family violence against women. For the purposes of this Law, any action or omission based on gender that causes death, injury, physical, sexual or psychological suffering and moral or property damage within the scope of the domestic unit, within the scope of the family, constitutes domestic and family violence against women. in any intimate relationship of affection, in which the aggressor lives or has lived with the victim, regardless of cohabitation.

Law 11,340/06 also establishes the so-called “urgent protective measures”, with great effectiveness, and non-compliance is also a crime (art. 24-A).

The art. 41 excludes the application of benefits relating to crimes of lesser offensive potential, ruling out the applicability of Law 9099/95.

Crimes
against the capital market

Law No. 6,385/76 aims to protect the securities market, establishing the relevant crimes. The crime known as insider trading, defined by art. 27-D, of the aforementioned Law, which is the use of relevant information not yet disclosed to the market, capable of providing, for the offender himself or for others, an undue advantage, through the negotiation of securities.

Crimes
of abuse of authority

Law 13.869/19, which came to discipline the crimes of abuse of authority, brought important innovations, despite the excessive fear of criminalizing the free action of the authorities imposed difficulties for the configuration of criminalized conduct. But its importance is unquestionable, above all for the increase of the right of defense. It not only imposes barriers to the abuse of power, but ensures the free performance of lawyers, for example, by establishing the crime of violating professional prerogatives, which are not perks, but guarantees that the lawyer is invested in and put at the service of the cause. and the jurisdictions.

On the subject, it is worth checking out the article we published in a collective work: (https://www.migalhas.com.br/depeso/309812/abusos-das-autoridades-ou-da-lei).

Lawyers

See Members

Antonio Ruiz Filho graduated in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP) in 1984, and has since dedicated himself exclusively and uninterruptedly to criminal law.

He was an intern and lawyer at the criminal law firm Tales Castelo Branco for 14 years (1983/1997), before founding the firm Ruiz Filho Advogados.

Most of the topics covered by Criminal Law, almost always for the defense, but also for the greater complexity.

In professional associations, he was president of the São Paulo Lawyers Association (AASP); director, for two terms, of the São Paulo Lawyers Institute (IASP); state councilor, president of the Commission on Rights and Prerogatives and director of the São Paulo Section of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB/SP), where he was elected to two constituents. He is currently chairman of the Commission for the Defense of Democracy and Prerogatives of the National Federation of Lawyers (FeNAdv).

He taught Ethics at the Law School of the Universidade Paulista (UNIP) and was an invited to be assistant professor of Criminal Procedure at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP).

Writes specialized publications.

Publications

See +128
A prisão imediata após julgamento pelo Júri – Uma usurpação de poder

Por Antonio Ruiz Filho

Tema 1.068 Repercussão Geral – A soberania dos veredictos do Tribunal do Júri autoriza a imediata execução de condenação imposta…

Datena x Marçal: Quais as implicações jurídicas da cadeirada?

Criminalistas explicam se o episódio pode configurar crime.

Uma sequência de discussões entre candidatos à prefeitura de SP no debate realizado pela TV Cultura…

RF Recomenda: Anatomia de uma queda (2023)

Indicamos, noutra edição da nossa newsletter, o filme de 1960 “O vento será tua herança”, ainda em preto e branco, protagonizado pelo magistral Spencer Tracy (que interpreta…