Why is it important to “snatch” the application?
To record statements and appeals, a Book of Records of Statements and Reports of Crimes, Administrative Offenses, and Incidents (KUSP) is maintained. It still looks like a barn book with bound and numbered pages, although many departments maintain an electronic duplicate of it.
The use of similar books is provided for in all bodies - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Investigative Committee (IC), the FSPP, customs, with minor differences only in the names.
Each received statement about a crime must be registered in the KUSP, or, in professional jargon, “acquired.” From this moment it becomes a procedural document. If this is not done, then it will be registered as simple incoming correspondence and will fall into the category of “citizen appeals”.
What is the difference?
An application for a crime is considered in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Namely, on its basis, the official is obliged to conduct a pre-investigation check (interrogations, inspections, requesting documents, etc.) and within 30 days make a decision to initiate or refuse to initiate a criminal case (Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation). In this case, the registered application is signed by a specific official who is responsible for its consideration.
The refusal to initiate a case can be appealed to a superior, prosecutor or in court. In addition, the applicant for the refused material has the right to familiarize himself with it in full, which can provide additional information to substantiate his position.
If the application is not “acquired”, but is accepted as a “citizen’s appeal,” then no verification is carried out, and the answer will be given in the form of a letter. In fact, this will set the applicant back and give the perpetrators time to “cover their tracks.”
Authorities use various tricks to influence the applicant’s psyche, convincing them that the inspection is undesirable for various reasons. Some of them are based on the alleged inconsistency of the crime statement with the necessary attributes (the facts are described incorrectly, something is not indicated, etc.). This means that the statement of a crime should not have any formal deficiencies that could allow it to be reclassified into ordinary circulation.
Illegal business
Illegal business activity is understood as activity that a citizen conducts without registering a legal entity or individual entrepreneur (we are talking about the systematic receipt of profit from running a business), or activity without a license, when one must be required.
Fines for such violations are established in Art. 116 Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Art. 14.1 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and Art. 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The violator may also face correctional labor or imprisonment. It all depends on the severity of the violation.
Entrepreneurial activity may be indicated by the testimony of counterparties, clients, wholesale purchases, advertising, the presence of papers on the sale of goods and services, etc., therefore, these are the factors that the Federal Tax Service will check after receiving an application about illegal entrepreneurship.
How to apply
On the website or by calling a law enforcement agency, you can find out the location of the duty station and personally submit an application there. In confirmation of his registration in the KUSP, the duty officer is obliged to issue the applicant a notification coupon, in which he indicates his name, rank, date, time of reception and registration number of the application.
Is it possible to report a crime remotely?
Yes. There is such an opportunity on the websites of regional bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as other law enforcement agencies. You can also submit your application by mail.
All received applications, regardless of the method of submission, must be registered with the KUSP. However, submitting an application through the website or by mail does not guarantee this. There is a high probability that it will be registered as a citizen’s appeal and considered without making a procedural decision.
Accordingly, submitting an application remotely is ineffective. We recommend filing a crime report in person. At the same time, it is possible to resolve equally important issues: establish contact with officials of the investigative agency, obtain a telephone number to track the fate of the application.
How is an application completed?
In order for the relevant structures to learn about the crime committed, the victim must report this fact. To do this, you need to write a statement about the fact of fraud to the police department. Usually there are samples to fill out at the stands of the institution; all citizens can use them. The victim also has the right to fill out an application independently, without using the example provided.
In this case, he needs to remember the rules for preparing and submitting a report of a crime committed (Article 141 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation):
- may be submitted in writing or orally;
- when submitted orally, the information is entered into the protocol by the police officer according to the citizen;
- the person is warned that he is liable for perjury.
Important! The applicant must personally sign the written application.
The Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation does not impose any other requirements for reporting a crime. But there is another law that regulates the rules for filing appeals by citizens and the procedure for government agencies to act in the event of a request.
In accordance with Art. 7 of the Law of May 2, 2006 No. 59-FZ, the following requirements must be met:
- indicate the name of the institution where the complaint is sent (police or EBiPK);
- information about the person who submitted the application (full name, date of birth, address details, contact telephone number);
- the name of the document, in this case it is written – “Statement of a crime”, or “Statement of fraud”;
- then the essence of the appeal is described, the circumstances of what happened are described in detail (when, where, what amount, the characters involved, etc.);
- the applicant expresses his request to bring the culprit to justice, if one is known;
- it should be noted that the citizen has been warned about liability for knowingly false information;
- list all available evidence for this application. These include: correspondence with the fraudster, audio and video recording of negotiations with the criminal, etc.;
- Below is the date and personal signature of the applying citizen.
A sample complaint to the OBEP (OEBiPK) can be downloaded in this section. The completed example will help you tailor your application to your specific situation, allowing you to fill it out correctly.
Download a sample complaint to the Department of Economic Crimes
Where to apply
A crime can be reported to any law enforcement agency. If the crime does not fall within the competence of this body, then within three days it must be sent to the appropriate address.
However, transferring the application between departments will seriously delay the pre-investigation check. To avoid this, in most cases it is better to submit the application to the correct addressee immediately.
There are cases when, at the expense of speed of consideration, it is better to submit an application to a body that will not conduct an inspection, but is more likely (than the “correct” body) to properly register the application and formalize the transfer within its jurisdiction.
The investigative jurisdiction of crimes (that is, their attribution to the competence of one or another investigative body) is established by Art. 151 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. In most cases, pre-investigation checks on economic crimes should be carried out by internal affairs bodies. But there are investigations that fall under the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee (IC), as well as under the joint jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee (the body that revealed the crime investigates).
In the internal affairs bodies, pre-investigation checks in the field of economic crimes are carried out by the economic security and anti-corruption units (UEB and PC, former OBEP). Therefore, it is better to submit an application for committing an economic crime to the duty department of the Economic Security Office and PC. If for some reason this is not possible, it can be submitted to the duty station of the territorial Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The place where a complaint about a crime is filed is an important tactical issue that requires comprehensive study, taking into account the actual circumstances of the crime, the regional practice of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee, the presence or absence of alleged connections in the investigative authorities and the prosecutor’s office among procedural opponents, the degree of workload of these authorities, and the like. Only after analyzing the entire set of relevant circumstances can we make a recommendation on where it is best to send a crime report.
How to file a complaint with the Department of Economic Crimes (OEBiPK)?
You can use any available method to submit an appeal:
- come in person and submit an application to an authorized employee;
- send by registered mail via mail with receipt of receipt attached;
- submit an application online via the Internet.
The latter method has become increasingly popular in recent years. Since deceived citizens can fill out the application form at home in a calm environment on the official website of the Economic Safety and Security Commission, which allows them to save personal time.
An anonymous complaint will not be accepted for consideration. Therefore, when filing an application for a financial crime, you need to provide information about the applicant and the address for sending a response based on the results of the audit.
Who submits an application on behalf of the organization
For crimes committed against an organization, the applicant is a specific individual. It is he who will receive a coupon notification of registration of the application, and he will be warned about liability for knowingly false denunciation.
The company can be represented by the general director, arbitration manager or any person with a power of attorney, which is drawn up according to the general rules established by civil law, that is, it is enough to certify it with a seal. An application on behalf of the organization can also be submitted by a lawyer whose authority is confirmed by a warrant or power of attorney.
At the same time, we note: the lack of proper certification of the authority of a representative of an organization cannot be a basis for refusing to register a statement, since according to the law, any person, not just the victim, has the right to report a crime committed or being prepared.
Refusal to accept and verify a report of a crime due to the lack of a power of attorney, expiration of the director’s term of office or other “formal” grounds is illegal.
This is especially important in cases related to corporate conflicts, when the management bodies of the injured organization may be formed on the basis of unlawful actions and not protect the interests of the legal entity.
What happens after registering an application
From the moment of registration with the KUSP, the period for consideration of the application begins, which cannot exceed 30 days.
The KUSP number indicated in the notification coupon is analogous to the number of the criminal, civil or arbitration case. To track the fate of the application, when communicating with law enforcement agencies, this number must be indicated in complaints and petitions.
Ideally, the applicant should be contacted by law enforcement within a few days of filing the application. If this does not happen within a week, then it is better to check with the duty department yourself to whom it was handed over.
You must be prepared for the fact that you may not be given the phone number of the performer, limiting yourself to the phone number of the office, which is difficult to reach.
If it is impossible to establish contact with the executor on the application, this is an alarming sign, indirectly indicating a reluctance to conduct a meaningful check. Sometimes this is a reason to, without waiting for the results of consideration of the application, file a complaint against the actions (inaction) of officials to higher management, the prosecutor's office or the court in accordance with Art. 123-125 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
Contents of the statement
Law enforcement officers are overloaded with cases, and they have little time to delve into the vicissitudes of the legal relations of business entities, which are confusingly set out in the criminal complaint.
A clear structuring of the text and a breakdown into paragraphs and subparagraphs will come to the rescue. Their sequence should reflect the final and intermediate tasks.
Practice allows us to identify a typical structure of an application, which includes the following sections.
"A cap"
Placed in the right corner of the sheet. The application can be issued on company letterhead, but this does not exempt you from the need to indicate information about the organization in the “header”.
It also states:
1. Information about the addressee. The application is submitted to the head of the relevant law enforcement unit. You can find out more information about it on the official website or by calling the duty station.
Information about the addressee is indicated in the dative case, on separate lines, in the following order:
Position => Title => Full name
It would not be a mistake to simply indicate the name of the law enforcement agency in the nominative case.
2. Last name, first name, patronymic of the applicant. Without their indication, the application is considered anonymous and will not be considered.
3. Postal address to which official notices related to the consideration of the application will be sent.
4. Phone and e-mail. It is better to leave the contact information of the person responsible for communicating with law enforcement officers.
5. The authority of the applicant to act on behalf of the legal entity. The position of the applicant is indicated, or a reference to acts under a power of attorney, or an order for lawyers.
6. Details of the represented legal entity. It is enough to indicate the TIN and OGRN. It is better to indicate more detailed information about the organization in the descriptive part.
As a result, the “header” of the application looks something like this (all data provided - names, events, etc. are fictitious):
To the Head of the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (UEB and PC) of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Ensk Region
police colonel
Syskarev Sergei Sergeevich
from the representative by proxy of the Limited Liability Company "Victims" (OGRN 1111123456789 INN 1234567890) of the Victim Pavel Pavlovich
Contact details:
st. Lenina, 1, cor. 2, apt. 3, Ensk, Ensk region, 999999
+ 7 999 123‑45‑67
Heading
It must clearly indicate that this is a statement about the commission of a crime. Otherwise, there is a risk of registering the application as a citizen’s appeal. A heading can reduce this risk and also increase your chances of appeal. It can be short: “Statement of a crime” or detailed: “Statement of a crime under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.”
Introductory part
We recommend using it when writing lengthy (for example, multi-episode) statements that may be difficult to understand on first reading. A concise description of the crime with preliminary qualifications will help the reader orientate himself and immediately understand what to pay attention to.
This part briefly describes, in one or two paragraphs, the incident and preliminary criminal qualifications in the following sequence:
Person (unidentified persons) => Time (period) => Place => Event => Damage => Qualification.
For example:
We ask that unidentified persons be brought to criminal responsibility who, on August 1, 2021, on the territory of the Romashka warehouse complex at the address: Ensk, Zagorodnoye Shosse, 1, by deception, by presenting a fake power of attorney for the right to receive inventory items, stole from the warehouse LLC "Victims" gas cylinders for a total amount of 1,000,000 rubles, that is, they committed a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud).
The crime occurred under the following circumstances.
The introductory part should provide orientation and allow you to quickly grasp the essence of the statement and determine the subject of proof in the case, without drowning in the intricacies of the actual circumstances of the crime.
It is ideal when the introductory part is written in the style and form inherent in criminal procedural paperwork, so that it can be taken as the basis for a certificate or report from an investigative worker to superiors, which justifies the need to initiate a criminal case, as well as a decision to initiate a case.
Descriptive part
- Qualification. The first step to preparing the “body” of the application is to determine the desired (intended) criminal qualifications. Already when describing events, try to show those facts that are important for a specific crime.
It must be taken into account that law enforcement officers are accustomed to working with the most frequent, “pattern” crimes. Therefore, it is better to avoid crimes that are rarely encountered in practice, even when they are correct from a legal point of view. We advise you to reduce the description of events to one of the common elements of economic crimes - fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), embezzlement (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), abuse of power (Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The jurisdiction of the application depends on the qualifications. For example, in the case of a corporate takeover of an enterprise, we can talk about a violation of established procedures (Articles 170.1, 185.5 - jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee) or causing property damage to a shareholder (Articles 159, 165, 201 - jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), which may be of fundamental importance for future prospects initiation of a criminal case.
It is worth adhering to the principle of “one crime - one statement”. An attempt to combine different events in one document most often does not add credibility, but, on the contrary, increases the chance of refusal to initiate a criminal case.
It is better to choose the most obvious, easily proven episode and write a statement on it. Information on other episodes can be provided after the initiation of a criminal case. If you need to draw the attention of law enforcement agencies to several crimes, then it is better to prepare your own statement for each of them.
A criminal complaint is not a claim with a factual and legal basis for the claims. There is no need to overload it with references to legal norms and judicial practice. The main task here is to correctly present the facts.
The text should be clear and easy to understand, but at the same time have a businesslike tone and should not contain colloquialisms or jargon. The circumstances should be presented impartially and without excessive emotionality.
It is necessary to describe the events that occurred as briefly as possible, in simple sentences, in chronological order. If there are too many facts, you can break the narrative into paragraphs, present the facts schematically, attaching to the application certificates on individual issues (for example, on spending money on an account, on corporate structure, etc.).
Each circumstance, if possible, should be accompanied by a reference to evidence confirming it. In addition to the evidence available to the applicant, known sources of evidence should also be indicated.
- The culprit. If the person who allegedly committed the crime is known, it is necessary to indicate his last name, first name and patronymic. It is better to indicate the remaining information, such as passport data, address, telephone number separately at the end of the application or in the form of a certificate accompanying the application.
If the identity of the culprit is unknown, he should be designated as an “unidentified person.” However, even in this case, you need to try to indicate certain individual characteristics. For example, “an unidentified person who presented a power of attorney issued by I.I. Sidorov,” “an unidentified person who introduced himself as Ivan Ivanov,” “unidentified persons from among the employees of Romashka LLC.”
There is no need to describe the appearance of the unknown criminal (height, eye and hair color, etc.) in the statement; just a reference to the fact that the eyewitness remembered his features and is ready to identify him is enough. More specifically, the signs of appearance will be clarified by the operative.
- Crime scene. The specific address (city, street, house) where the criminal acts were committed is indicated.
Each law enforcement agency has a certain territory over which its competence extends. The specific territorial unit to which the application will be sent depends on the place where the crime was committed.
An unclear indication of the crime scene (address) in the application may allow authorities to transfer it from one unit to another, which will increase the verification period.
Determining the location of an economic crime is not always an easy task. Depending on the nature of the act, this could be the place where an agreement was signed, money was transferred, counterfeit products were discovered, etc.
When non-cash money is stolen, the scene of the crime is the bank branch where the victim's current account is opened.
Therefore, before submitting an application, it is better to check the judicial practice on the issue of determining the location of a specific crime.
- The time of the events described. If possible, the specific day or period is indicated as precisely as possible: “from 01/01/2021 to 01/04/2021”. If the exact time is unknown, it is enough to indicate the approximate period or milestone: “in mid-March 2022”, “in January-February 2022”, “no later than December 2022”.
- Consequences of the crime. Most economic elements of a crime are material, that is, to recognize the crime as completed, the onset of adverse consequences is necessary. It is advisable to describe the consequences that the criminal act entailed (may entail), since this affects the qualification or even the existence of the crime.
Most often, negative consequences are defined as direct harm, that is, the cost of lost (damaged) property. It is enough to indicate the amount of stolen funds or the book value of goods.
In case of commission of a crime under Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the damage will be the amount of lost assets, including lost profits (for example, the amount of unpaid electricity).
Particular attention should be paid to those crimes where the assessment categories “substantial harm” and “serious consequences” are used, for example, in Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In this case, it is necessary to further justify what exactly the consequences of criminal actions are. For example, indicate that due to the actions of the general director, the company lost fixed assets, was unable to continue normal operations and became insolvent.
Petition part
The petition part must contain a clear requirement to verify the circumstances specifically in criminal proceedings. This can be done in several ways.
Option 1:
Initiate a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in relation to Sergey Sergeevich Zlodeev on the fact of theft by deception of funds from Victims LLC in the amount of 3,000,000 rubles. and bring those responsible to justice.
Option 2:
1. Carry out in accordance with Art. 144, 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation to verify the stated circumstances.
2. If signs of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, or other crimes, initiate a criminal case and bring the perpetrators to criminal liability.
In this part, you can indicate which verification actions and in what sequence need to be carried out.
The degree of detail described may vary depending on the circumstances. Sometimes it is enough just to conceptually indicate the direction of investigative work, and sometimes to include in the petition part an entire investigation plan, including a list of issues to be clarified from specific individuals.
Criminal Warning
Is a necessary requisite for the application. At the end of the application you need to write:
On criminal liability under Art. 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, warned for knowingly false denunciation.
After the warning formula, the applicant signs.
Applications
Applications must include documents and electronic media containing relevant information, reference data, diagrams, maps, etc.
It happens that in economic cases the annexes amount to several volumes (or even boxes) of documents. In such a situation, the applicant’s task is to ensure comfortable navigation through the documents, which can be achieved by stitching documents, continuous page numbering, and drawing up an inventory.
You need to attach copies of documents. It is better to transfer the originals within the framework of an initiated criminal case or during a separate procedural action, having received, as a result, a protocol confirming the receipt of documents and items by a specific official.
