However, in the case of a corporation, the only punishment that can be imposed on it for the offense it has committed is a fine. In light of the difficulties of imposing a significant fine on a corporation, it is precisely in the case of corporations that have committed offenses of this type, in addition to a reasonable fine, that the focus should be on rehabilitation (see in this regard: Livni, White-Collar Offenses, starting at p. 39; see also: Crim. Appeal 99/14 State of Israel v. Melisron, paragraphs 111-121 (published in Nevo, 2014). Henning , Corporate Punishment, at p. 87, the author clarifies that in addition to the monetary scope of the fine, which sometimes does not correspond to the amount of the damage, in any case it is the money of the shareholders, so that the company as a company is not punished, but the shareholders at the time of payment of the fine. In light of this, the author believes that criminal law should be used to rehabilitate the corporation in the sense of changing the organizational culture, so that what happened will not be repeated. According to him (ibid.):
"If the only result of corporate criminal prosecutions were monetary penalties, then prosecuting corporations just so everyone feels better would debase the criminal law. Criminal sanctions are appropriate for a corporation, even if it has a compliance program in place, when the goal of the criminal prosecution is rehabilitation of the organization to change its corporate culture so that it can more effectively prevent future violations."
He adds that the primary and main goal in punishing corporations is to rehabilitate them (p. 92):
"The district judges in Bank of America and Guidant looked at these corporations in a similar way the general public does, that organizations are certainly capable of engaging in wrongdoing apart from what any individual might have accomplished, and that just imposing fines without seeking to reform the corporation provides little real benefit to society. The perception of corporate punishment does matter when the public views the company as a coherent entity that can be changed by the application of criminal sanctions so that it can conform to the requirements of the law. As such, society wants to see something more than a corporation paying a fine because that merely represents its ability to buy its way out of a criminal case. Rather, it wants to see criminal punishment used to rehabilitate a corporation to prevent future misconduct."