“Imprisoning” a company is kind of a nonsensical concept because it is a concept that is made up and exists only in the minds of people. But one “creative” punishment is potentially to punish the company by confiscating its equity.
So instead of N years imprisonment, the state confiscates N × 5 per cent of the company’s equity. That means that all outstanding shares represent 100 minus N×5 per cent of the company instead of 100 per cent.
Example: Company A has 1 million outstanding shares. Each share of common stock therefore represents 0.01% of the company. Suppose the company is convicted of a crime that would be punishable by 3 years imprisonment. So 15% of its equity is confiscated. That now means 1 million shares represent 85% of the company, so each share of common stock now only represents 0.0085% of the company. The state gets one special share that represents the 15% equity that was confiscated. The state gets 15% of all profit dividends going forward.
This would heavily encourage companies to avoid criminal activity and it is multitudes more effective as a deterrent than mere fines, because it directly hurts a company’s share price, i.e. the one thing that its investors actually care about.