Internal prototype — noindexed, not linked from public navigation yet.

N.Y. PEN Law § 20.20

This is the official text of N.Y. PEN Law § 20.20, part of New York’s Penal Law — defines crimes and punishments in New York.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Criminal liability of corporations

Official statutory text

§ 20.20 Criminal liability of corporations.\n 1. As used in this section:\n (a) "Agent" means any director, officer or employee of a corporation,\nor any other person who is authorized to act in behalf of the\ncorporation.\n (b) "High managerial agent" means an officer of a corporation or any\nother agent in a position of comparable authority with respect to the\nformulation of corporate policy or the supervision in a managerial\ncapacity of subordinate employees.\n 2. A corporation is guilty of an offense when:\n (a) The conduct constituting the offense consists of an omission to\ndischarge a specific duty of affirmative performance imposed on\ncorporations by law; or\n (b) The conduct constituting the offense is engaged in, authorized,\nsolicited, requested, commanded, or recklessly tolerated by the board of\ndirectors or by a high managerial agent acting within the scope of his\nemployment and in behalf of the corporation; or\n (c) The conduct constituting the offense is engaged in by an agent of\nthe corporation while acting within the scope of his employment and on\nbehalf of the corporation, and the offense is (i) a misdemeanor or a\nviolation, (ii) one defined by a statute which clearly indicates a\nlegislative intent to impose such criminal liability on a corporation,\n(iii) any offense set forth in title twenty-seven of article seventy-one\nof the environmental conservation law, or (iv) is in relation to a crime\ninvolving the death or serious physical injury of an employee where the\ncorporation acted negligently, recklessly, intentionally, or knowingly.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.