Article 223 Federal Criminal Code

Commits the crime of embezzlement by public officials (peculado):

I.- Any public official who, for his benefit or that of a third natural person or legal person, diverts from its object money, securities, lands or any other thing belonging to the State or to a private individual, if by reason of his charge he has received them in administration, in deposit, in possession or for another cause;

II.- The public official who unlawfully uses public funds or grants any of the acts referred to in the article on unlawful use of attributions and faculties with the object of promoting the political or social image of his person, that of his hierarchical superior or that of a third party, or in order to denigrate any person;

III.- Any person who requests or accepts to carry out the promotions or denigrations referred to in the preceding section, in exchange for public funds or the enjoyment of the benefits derived from the acts referred to in the article on unlawful use of attributions and faculties, and

IV.- Any person who, without having the character of federal public official and being legally obligated to the custody, administration or application of federal public resources, diverts them from their object for his own or another's uses or gives them an application different from that to which they were destined.

Whoever commits the crime of embezzlement by public officials (peculado) shall be imposed the following sanctions:

When the amount of what is diverted or of the funds unduly used does not exceed the equivalent of five hundred times the daily value of the Unit of Measurement and Updating at the time the crime is committed, or is not valuable, from three months to two years of imprisonment and from thirty to one hundred days fine shall be imposed.

When the amount of what is diverted or of the funds unduly used exceeds five hundred times the daily value of the Unit of Measurement and Updating at the time the crime is committed, from two years to fourteen years of imprisonment and from one hundred to one hundred fifty days fine shall be imposed.

When the resources that are the subject matter of the embezzlement are federal contributions for the purposes of public security, up to one third more of the penalties established in the preceding paragraphs shall be applied.