Short answer. The profits go to the State, not to you. Article 1770 of the Civil Code is explicit: when an unlawful partnership is dissolved by judicial decree, the profits are confiscated in favor of the State. The partners do not get to keep the earnings of an illegal enterprise.
What the law says
When an unlawful partnership is dissolved by a judicial decree, the profits shall be confiscated in favor of the State, without prejudice to the provisions of the Penal Code governing the confiscation of the instruments and effects of a crime.
Civil Code, Article 1770 — Lawful Object. Read the full provision →
A partnership must have a lawful purpose
Article 1770 of the Civil Code opens with the basic requirement: a partnership must have a lawful object or purpose and must be established for the common benefit or interest of the partners. A partnership formed around an illegal activity — trafficking, an unlicensed financial scheme, or any enterprise prohibited by law — fails this test from the start. Such a partnership is void, and the State, not the partners, is the intended beneficiary of its earnings.
What happens to the profits on dissolution
When a court dissolves an unlawful partnership, the law does not simply order the partners to wind up and divide what is left among themselves. Instead, the profits shall be confiscated in favor of the State. This is a sanction, not just a procedural consequence. The law refuses to allow anyone to profit from an illegal enterprise. Even if individual partners were unaware that the purpose was unlawful, the statutory consequence is the same: the profits do not belong to them.
Capital contributions are treated separately
The confiscation of profits does not automatically mean the partners lose everything. The rule in Article 1770 targets profits — the earnings of the unlawful activity. Capital contributions made by partners to fund the enterprise are a separate question, and the law does not in this article address their fate in the same terms. The distinction between what a partner put in and what the partnership earned matters, though the outcome in any given case depends on the specific facts and what a court orders in the dissolution proceeding.
Criminal liability and the Penal Code
Article 1770 ends with a reservation: the confiscation of profits is without prejudice to the Penal Code's rules on confiscating the instruments and effects of a crime. This means the dissolution and confiscation under civil law do not shield the partners from criminal prosecution. If the partnership's purpose was criminal, those involved may face separate criminal charges, and the criminal proceeding can result in additional confiscations — of equipment, vehicles, cash, or other items used in or produced by the criminal activity — on top of what the civil dissolution already strips away.