Italian Supreme Court, Fifth Criminal Section, judgment no. 35494/2026, filed on 6 October 2026.

Failure to deliver accounting records to the bankruptcy trustee cannot automatically establish liability for fraudulent bankruptcy involving accounting records.

The Supreme Court quashed a conviction with remittal, criticising the refusal of the defence request to establish whether the accounting records had previously been seized by the Guardia di Finanza in separate criminal proceedings.

According to the Court, the judge must engage with alternative explanations put forward by the defence without requiring the defendant to prove their innocence.

The principle is particularly important: where the defence identifies specific and potentially decisive evidence, the court must assess it properly, including by reopening the evidentiary phase under Article 603 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, in accordance with the presumption of innocence and the beyond-reasonable-doubt standard.

Source: Italian Supreme Court, Fifth Criminal Section, no. 35494/2026, filed on 6 October 2026.