(1) Whosoever due to his liabilities exceeding his assets or current or impending inability to pay his debts
1. disposes of or hides, or, in a manner contrary to regular business standards, destroys, damages or renders unusable parts of his assets, which in the case of institution of insolvency proceedings would belong to the available assets;
2. in a manner contrary to regular business standards enters into losing or speculative ventures or futures trading in goods or securities or consumes excessive sums or becomes indebted through uneconomical expenditures, gambling or wagering;
3. procures goods or securities on credit and sells or otherwise distributes them or things produced from these goods substantially under their value in a manner contrary to regular business standards;
4. pretends the existence of another’s rights or recognises fictitious rights;
5. fails to keep books of account which he is statutorily obliged to keep, or keeps or modifies them in such a manner that a survey of his net assets is made more difficult;
6. disposes of, hides, destroys or damages books of account or other documentation, which a merchant is obliged by commercial law to keep, before expiry of the archiving periods which exist for those obliged to keep books, and thereby makes a survey of his net assets more difficult;
(a) draws up balance sheets in such a manner that a survey of his net assets is made more difficult; or
(b) fails to draw up a balance sheet of his assets or the inventory in the prescribed time; or
8. in another manner which grossly violates regular business standards diminishes his net assets or hides or conceals the actual circumstances of his business,
shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine.
(2) Whosoever causes his liabilities to exceed his assets or the inability to pay by one of the acts indicated in subsection (1) above shall incur the same penalty.
(3) The attempt shall be punishable.
1. under subsection (1) above negligently fails to be aware of the excess of liabilities or the impending or current inability to pay or
2. under subsection (2) above causes the excess of liabilities or inability to pay by gross negligence
shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine.
1. under subsection (2) Nos 2, 5 or 7 above acts negligently and at least negligently fails to be aware of the excess of liabilities or the impending or current inability to pay; or
2. under subsection (2) in conjunction with subsection (1) Nos 2, 5 or 7 above acts negligently and at least by gross negligence causes the excess of liabilities or inability to pay,
shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine.
(6) The offence shall only entail liability if the offender has suspended payments or if insolvency proceedings have been instituted in relation to his assets or the application to institute proceedings has been rejected due to lack of available assets.