In order for finances to generate tangible income, they must constantly work. What is the easiest way to do this? Invest somewhere to benefit yourself. However, before doing this, it is imperative to assess as thoroughly as possible all the risks that may follow. Otherwise, you can be deceived by all sorts of scammers. This is why it is so important to understand in as much detail as possible what constitutes fraud.
According to Article 159 of the Criminal Code, fraud is understood as a crime for the purpose of appropriating someone else’s property or obtaining rights to this property in an order not established by law through abuse of trust or intentional deception.
It is not clear why among the citizens of our country it is not customary to consider fraud a serious offense. It seems that the victim herself voluntarily agreed to part with her property, and it seems that she herself is to blame. However, from a legal point of view, fraud is a type of theft and can be punished quite severely.
If you believe the statistics of criminologists, then in the territory of the Russian Federation fraud has acquired simply colossal proportions. Every year new forms of fraud and schemes appear.
One of the rather serious varieties of this illegal action is fraud in receiving payments under Art. 159 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. There is a completely cold attitude towards this aspect of cheating, as if it were something in the order of things. However, under Article 159 Part 2 the punishment can be quite serious.
Fraud in receiving payments
Fraud, Article 159 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation includes the theft of financial funds or any property in the process of obtaining:
• Compensations; • Various benefits; • Assigned subsidies; • Any other social. payments
It is illegal to receive payments by providing false or inaccurate information about yourself or withholding any information that could lead to the termination of payments under Article 159 Part 2, which threatens criminal liability.
A large share of such crimes occurs in the receipt of pension payments and other benefits with regular payments on time based on false documents. In the case of dishonest receipt of pension contributions, fraud will be considered the provision of false information that led to the receipt of the required benefits or pension payments or allows one to count on a larger amount of payments.
This may include false information regarding:
• Work experience; • Professions; • Average monthly earnings; • Health; • Having a disability.
The amount of illegally stolen goods is determined by the total amount of all fraudulently received payments, or if the suspected fraudster was entitled to payments of a smaller amount, then the difference between the real and received amounts.
In addition, the subsection of fraudulent activity under consideration may include the intentional receipt of payments by one person instead of another, who is actually entitled to payments.
For example, this could be the receipt of pension payments by the relatives of the deceased instead of him. Or receiving payments intended for another person on the basis of a fake power of attorney. This kind of scam occurs quite often.
In Article 159 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the commentary clarifies that even the mere provision of false documents to the institution involved in payments is illegal and may entail liability.
Types of crime
In relation to the borrower
- A bank employee is involved in the fraudulent scheme, applying for a loan using a photocopy of a passport and available information about one of the current clients of the financial institution. The funds, of course, do not reach the client’s hands, but are used by the employee for personal purposes.
- Credit brokers can deceive the borrower when applying for a loan. The potential borrower is charged money for each loan application submitted to the bank for consideration. In fact, no work is done to issue a loan; the client pays money for air.
- Borrowers who have accumulated loan debt to the bank may become victims of false collectors. Fraudsters, having received information about the debt, begin to extort money from the debtor in every possible way. The funds paid by the borrower under their pressure fall into the hands of false collectors, and the debt remains in the bank.
- Banks increase the total loan amount by compulsorily providing additional services to the client. Bank employees enter into insurance contracts, which the client often learns about after all the documents have been signed. The bank classifies the insurance service (life, accident) as a mandatory condition for obtaining a loan, although it is not such. You will learn about other insurance fraud schemes in our article.
- When concluding a loan transaction, credit institutions (microfinance organizations, illegal companies) fraudulently force the borrower to sign documents on the purchase and sale of real estate. Among the entire package of papers, the inattentive client is given a document to sign, by signing which the person transfers ownership of the property to other persons.
In relation to a credit institution
Fraudsters often implement their schemes to illegally obtain funds by providing false information to a financial institution. So, the following schemes are used :
- To obtain a loan, fake certificates and passports are provided to the bank, and the potential borrower is carefully made up to perform his role. That is, the loan is issued to a non-existent person, and, accordingly, even the slightest part of it will not be returned to the bank.
- The loan is issued to a person who has an identity card, but who does not have income or permanent residence. Fraudsters attract such persons to the transaction for a small reward. Such “borrowers” are brought into proper form, a legend about their work activity is composed for them, which they voice when applying for a loan. A financial institution issues a loan that will never be repaid.
- The borrower, when filling out a loan application form, deliberately distorts the data so that in the future it can be filed in court to declare the agreement illegitimate, which will entail a refusal to fulfill obligations to repay the loan.
- After the loan is approved, the borrower protests and demands that the agreement be declared invalid, since there is a statement about the theft or loss of the passport. Such actions are planned in advance. Immediately before visiting the bank, a statement about the loss of the document is written.
- Creation of shell companies to obtain loans. False information about the company's activities is provided to the bank, and after receiving the loan, the organization disappears.
In all of these situations, the injured party is a financial organization that has lost funds due to fraudulent actions.
Protect yourself and your loved ones from the actions of criminals - read our articles about various types and schemes of fraud: corporate, financial, by telephone, using SNILS, in the areas of business activity and computer information, as well as with the participation of a legal entity or in relation to it.
Types of fraud under Article 159 Part 2 and what they entail
Also suitable for this paragraph of Article 159 are:
• Fraud in business activities; • Abuse of official opportunities to obtain dishonest payments.
Fraud involving the intentional illegal receipt of payments through abuse of official capacity may be punished:
• a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles; • arrest of income for a period of one to three years; • working hours for a period of 5 years; • in severe cases, detention for up to 6 years and penalties in the amount of 80,000 rubles.
The same penalties can be imposed for ordinary fraud involving payments on a particularly large scale.
In the field of entrepreneurship, this type of fraud can be closely related to failure to fulfill the terms of the contract, which led to serious damage.
• A fine of up to 300 thousand rubles; • Seizure of income for a period of 2 years; • Working hours up to 480 hours or up to two years (depending on the severity); • Detention for a period of one to five years.
Qualifying characteristics of a criminal act
All cases related to fraud have practically common characteristics, regardless of the specifics of the process. Thus, the object of the crime will be relations of a certain form of ownership. But the subject of a criminal act is someone else’s property or rights to it.
The subject of the crime is a person who has reached the age of 16 and is aware that his actions are illegal and cause harm to other users. Also, a group of persons who entered into a preliminary conspiracy to obtain unjustified benefits can be considered as a subject. There is a small nuance regarding the subject of the crime. A person accused of a crime must be fully and clearly aware of his criminal intentions, be legally competent and not have any restrictions in his actions.
The subjective side of a crime involves the presence of malicious intent. This means that the criminal is aware that his actions entail negative consequences for the deceived victim, as well as the very fact of committing an illegal offense.
An important function here is played by the presence of selfish motives and goals, through which the criminal intends to increase his status, financial well-being, etc.
As for the objective side, it will be the most important parameter by which a specific qualifying characteristic of a crime is determined. The legislator considers the following objective signs of fraud, manifested in:
- seizure and taking possession of someone else's property by deception or abuse of trust, and transferring it under the control of other persons who do not have any rights to the property;
- illegality of an act entailing criminal prosecution;
- gratuitousness;
- causing damage (moral, material) to the owner of property assets that were transferred to someone else’s property fraudulently;
- criminal result.
In some cases, liability for fraud may be increased. The legislator approved several parameters that influence the aggravation of guilt and significantly increase the degree of punishment:
- repeated fraud;
- causing great material harm to the victim;
- use of official position and opportunities;
- machinations of a group of persons acting in conspiracy.
Judicial practice under Article 159 Part 2
In just one year, more than three thousand people were convicted of fraud with the intent to illegally obtain payments. This is approximately 12% of all those convicted under the one hundred and fifty-ninth article.
Intentional illegal receipt of any kind of deductions or payments is a criminal act described in detail in Article 159, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which threatens criminal liability. In most situations, if the fraudster’s guilt is proven, he may be fined from 120,000 to 1,500,000 rubles. According to Article 159 Part 2, the severity of the crime depends primarily on the existence of a conspiracy between the criminals, the size of the stolen payments and the presence of a highly organized group.
Since fraud under this article is a criminal offense, it can naturally be punishable by imprisonment. In this regard, many are interested in what term under Article 159 Part 2 can be assigned. Considering that this offense before the law is of medium severity, the probable punishment can be imposed within 5 years of imprisonment. And one more question: is it possible to receive a suspended sentence under Article 159 Part 2. Yes, in some cases, a suspended sentence may be imposed by a court decision.
Corpus delicti
When committing fraud in the field of lending, the subject of such a crime is considered to be a sane individual who has reached the age of 16 years. The subjective side of the crime is the intention of the attacker to seize funds through illegal means.
The object of the crime is property relations. The subject of the attacker’s actions are funds and the right to dispose of them. The objective side of the illegal acts is the theft of funds by the attacker by concluding a loan agreement based on knowingly false data.
The following circumstances may indicate an intention to commit theft::
- the borrower is initially insolvent;
- providing bank employees with false documents;
- fictitious creation of enterprises participating in the transaction.
All these circumstances cannot prejudge judicial conclusions that a person is guilty of committing a crime. In each case, it will be necessary to establish that the borrower did not initially plan to fulfill his debt obligations.
Commentary to Art. 159.3 Criminal Code
1. The crime is characterized by a special method of committing a crime - deception of an authorized employee of a credit, trade or other organization by using a counterfeit or a credit, payment or other payment card belonging to another person (for example, a bank card to pay for goods or services in a shopping or service center, when the person enters the PIN code, signs the purchase receipt instead of the legal card owner, or presents a fake passport in his name).
2. Authorized employees of a credit, trade or other organization include persons who are employees of the relevant organization and who actually carry out operations on behalf of the said organization for the sale of goods, payment for work (services), acceptance and issuance of funds using cash registers or banking equipment, equipped with the ability to accept payment cards for service. It does not matter whether they were appointed to their position in violation of the law or local acts of the organization. Even if the authorized employee did not take any action to identify the card owner (did not ask to sign a check, provide a passport, etc.), the action is still qualified according to the commented norm.
3. In accordance with paragraph 13 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 27, 2007 N 51 “On judicial practice in cases of fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement”, theft of other people's funds by using a previously stolen or counterfeit credit (payment) card, if cash is issued through an ATM without the participation of an authorized employee of a credit institution, it is qualified under Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
