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Pen. Code, § 1398 · Chapter 9. Proceedings Against Corporations

Pen. Code, § 1398

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) In addition to any other penalty or fine provided by law, if a corporation is convicted of a misdemeanor or felony offense, the court may order the corporation to pay an additional fine, known as the corporate white collar criminal enhancement, pursuant to this section.

(b) The court may determine the amount of the fine. The fine shall not exceed the greater of either of the following:

(1) Two times the value of the taking or loss, whichever is greater, if the offense resulted in the taking of, or loss to, another person’s or entity’s money, labor, or real or personal property.

(2) Twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000).

(c) In determining the amount of the fine under this section, the court shall consider all of the following:

(1) The nature and seriousness of the offense.

(2) The number of offenses committed.

(3) The persistence of the criminal conduct.

(4) The length of time over which the criminal conduct occurred.

(5) The willfulness of the corporation’s criminal conduct.

(6) The corporation’s assets, liabilities, and net worth, if available to the court.

(d) If, after a hearing in open court, the judge exercises their discretion in assessing the fine, they shall state the reason on the record.

(e) Any moneys collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the California Crime Victims Fund established under Section 13839.

(f) For purposes of this section, a “corporation” means a firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, public entity, or any other legal entity.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2024, Ch. 651, Sec. 3. (AB 2432) Effective January 1, 2025.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=1398.
Text hash
sha256 a823f2dc3294f9a6294a964654af762c6bd26395ecc019761e8d746e615a3729
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.