Lawyer for economic crimes and cases

Reasons for initiating cases of economic crimes
What is economic crime?
From the experience of lawyers in economic cases
Do you need a lawyer for economic crimes?
Main articles of the Criminal Code on economic crimes

According to the legal statistics portal, in Russia there is a downward trend in the number of officially registered economic crimes. The detection rate of such crimes is also falling.

However, this does not indicate a real decrease in crime, but the emergence of new, “intelligent” methods of criminal attacks. In addition, the problem of initiating criminal cases under economic charges in order to put pressure on entrepreneurs still remains relevant.

Reasons for initiating cases of economic crimes

The category of economic criminal acts includes offenses that encroach on economic relations between various market participants, including entrepreneurs. And since the activity of any business is inevitably associated with making a profit with the financial risks accompanying this process, this explains its high crime rate.
In this regard, a Russian entrepreneur is always under particularly close attention from the authorities and is often subject to unfounded accusations.

The main reason for the increase in indicators is the crisis state of the state in the economic field, the impoverishment of citizens, and, as a consequence, greater activity of law enforcement agencies. The above reasons, among others, force the state to reduce all expenses, strengthen control and use the repressive apparatus in order to fill the budget. All this leads to the fact that law enforcement officers create the appearance of continuous activity, deliberately increasing the detection rates and pretending that there are no grounds for reducing funding. If fewer criminal cases were sent to the justice authorities than in the previous similar period, this is regarded by management from a negative point of view and entails consequences for officials.

Consequently, the brutal system of security forces and gaps in the law, coupled with the crisis state of the economy, lead to the fact that criminal cases are opened against businessmen on formal grounds for allegedly committing criminal acts in the sphere of economics and economic activity (tax evasion, fraud, etc. ) for annual improvement of statistical indicators.

When not applicable

Temporary restrictions on initiating legal proceedings do not apply to a number of criminal offenses.

Statutes of limitation do not apply to the following crimes:

Planning, organizing and carrying out terrorist attacks.
Planning and carrying out aggressive military actions, including the use of prohibited techniques.
Extermination of certain groups of the population in accordance with ethnic, religious, racial motives (genocide).
Violent actions against persons operating on the territory of international institutions (embassies, consulates).
Armed protests against the current government, carried out with the use of weapons.
Attempts against public and government figures.
Seizing power by violent means.

Is there a statute of limitations for murder? Find out the answer right now!

What is economic crime?

Economic crimes are a type of offense that targets property and production legal relations, the economic rights of individuals, organizations, and public entities.

All economic criminal acts can be conditionally divided into three separate groups, where the criterion for differentiation is the generic object of the criminal attack.

The first group consists of crimes against property

Art. 159 - fraud;
Art. 160 - misappropriation or embezzlement;
Art. 165 - causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust;

The second group consists of acts in the field of economic activity and provides for punishment under the following articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

Art. 169 - obstruction of legitimate business activity;
Art. 171 - Illegal business;
Art. 172 - Illegal banking activities;
Art. 174 - Legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by other persons illegally;
Art. 174-1 - Legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime;
Art. 179 - Coercion to complete a transaction or to refuse to complete it;
Art. 180 – Illegal use of a trademark;
Art. 196 - Intentional bankruptcy.
Art. 198 - Evasion of taxes and (or) fees from an individual;
Art. 199 - Evasion of taxes and (or) fees from an organization;
Art. 199-1 - Failure to fulfill the duties of a tax agent;
Art. 186 - production or sale of counterfeit money or securities;
Art. 187 - production or sale of counterfeit credit or payment cards and other payment documents.

The third group consists of crimes against the interests of service in a commercial or other organization:

Art. 201 – Abuse of authority;
Art. 204 - Commercial bribery.

From the experience of lawyers in economic cases

Based on our experience in handling cases of economic crimes, we can state the following fact: every year there are more and more cases when criminal cases are initiated even on the third day after the presentation of a statement from the injured party, and cases are often initiated illegally, without any verification by the investigation. As a rule, the very next day after the decision to initiate a case is issued, the investigator applies to the justice authority to seize property assets.

In 83% of cases, the initiation of a criminal case leads to the fact that a businessman is completely or partially deprived of his business - this interesting point was noted by President Vladimir Putin at one of his annual addresses to the Federal Assembly.

The existing practice in our country of judicial review of cases under economic clauses states that if your case is brought to court, there will be no acquittal. This suggests a conclusion - potential victims and accused seek to resolve all issues at the investigation stage.

As a rule, when a criminal case of an economic nature is initiated, an entrepreneur is placed under arrest or house arrest. At the same time, pressure is being exerted on businesses through the seizure of papers from financial and economic activities, computer equipment, and the seizure of assets and money in accounts.

The sooner you turn to us for help, the greater your chances of turning the situation in your favor and solving the matter with little loss, or even avoiding any problems altogether.

Involve a lawyer in your case?

Our lawyers can significantly complicate or even prevent the investigation from illegal and unreasonable actions to collect materials on economic crimes, and sometimes even exclude various evidence and materials from the case, since it is possible to challenge or prove that these materials were obtained illegally and cannot be used in the judiciary.

Initial consultation on economic crimes

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Statute of limitations for administrative offenses of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate

Traffic police fines, being administrative, must be paid within 2 months.
If payment is made within 20 days, the amount of the fine is halved (Administrative Code Art. 32.2, paragraphs 1, 1.3).

The countdown begins 10 days after the offender receives the order.

If the fine is not paid, the bailiff initiates enforcement proceedings (Administrative Code Article 32.2, paragraph 5). Upon the opening of SSP production, the draft dodger is given 5 days to voluntarily cover the debt (Federal Law No. 229 2007/02/10, edition 2016/01/10, Article 30, Clause 12). After this, all income and property of the debtor come into the view of the bailiff. If the amount of traffic police fines exceeds 10 thousand, the bailiff imposes a temporary ban on the debtor traveling abroad (Federal Law No. 229, Article 67, paragraphs 1, 3).

The statute of limitations for imposing a fine is 2 months (through the court - 3 months), and for collection (a common offense) it is limited to 2 years from the date of the decision to impose an administrative penalty. The following provisions are available for appeal:

10 days – with the head of the state traffic inspectorate;
60 days – in court.

If the inspector does not issue a fine on the spot, then after 2 months he cannot bring the offender to justice. After 3 months, the statute of limitations for this violation expires completely and irrevocably.

Example. M exceeded the speed limit on January 15, 2014, was stopped by an inspector and fined. The decision to impose a fine became effective on January 25, 2014 (it was not appealed). On January 26, 2014, the statute of limitations began to run, which expired on January 26, 2016. Over the past 2 years, no one bothered him (no measures were taken) or tried to forcefully bring him to justice.

The traffic cop’s demand to pay the “debt” presented to him after the named date is not legal, since M did not hide or evade (they didn’t even try to find him), and the statute of limitations had expired - the resolution lost its force.

The statute of limitations for CCTV fines is no different from traditional fines.

The only difference is the imposition of punishment for malicious non-payment. In this case, arrest for 15 days is not possible (Administrative Code Art. 20.25, paragraph 3).

Any administrative violation implies responsibility for the act and punishment, which is assigned by special authorized persons (bodies).

The limitation period for filing claims and imposing penalties is generally limited to 2 months. The limitation period for executing a foreclosure order expires after 2 years. This does not mean that you can “wait it out” and thus hide from responsibility. If a draft dodger is identified, the measures that will be applied to him are very severe.

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Do you need a lawyer for economic crimes?

Economic criminal acts are recognized as one of the most difficult, since they can involve various logistics schemes, financial processes, business projects and a huge amount of paperwork and accounting information.

A timely contact with JSC “Trial Advocate” will allow you to nullify some of the investigative actions for inspection or search in economic cases.

For a businessman, as a rule, it is almost impossible to sort out the specifics of financial and tax legislation; this, in turn, plays into the hands of security forces and investigative agencies, since it is easy to confuse the accused in a large and complex amount of information. The investigator also has the opportunity to use the defendant’s weak knowledge in the legal or financial sphere.

Often, even an accountant with extensive experience does not know all the legal subtleties that play a big role in preparing materials for initiating a criminal case, and since the investigator’s task is the maximum punishment, the investigator will try in every possible way to omit facts that could help mitigate the sentence or completely ruin everything case.

As a rule, when investigating acts in the economic sphere, the investigator will try to incriminate you under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

According to Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud”, a citizen faces up to 10 years in prison and fines in the amount of 1,000,000 rubles.

Deadlines in Russia

According to Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person who has committed a crime is exempt from criminal liability if the time limit has already expired from the date of the crime.
Here are the deadlines that must expire in order for a person to no longer be punished:

2 years if a minor crime was committed;
6 years if the person committed a crime of average gravity;
10 years in case of committing a serious crime;
15 years if a person has committed a particularly serious crime.

Theft

According to the criminal code, theft is equivalent to theft of property. Accordingly, it is also regarded.

Property theft can vary in severity. For example, theft provided for in paragraph 1 158 of Art. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can be classified as a crime of minor gravity.

The remaining paragraphs of this article imply that the person has committed a crime of moderate gravity. For example, this may include theft of property with entry into premises, theft by prior conspiracy.

This also includes theft from hand luggage that is with the victim.

Such a crime is already medium in severity, since it is punishable by imprisonment for up to 6 years.

Fraud

Fraud is described in detail in Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If it is simply fraud, then it is considered a minor crime.

If fraud is committed by a group of persons, then it is already classified as a crime of medium gravity. There are many nuances here; you need to understand who exactly committed the fraud and to what extent it was committed. Article 159 very succinctly describes the offense of fraud.

Fraud on an especially large scale is defined by paragraph 4 159 of Art. of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It can be considered a serious crime, according to Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Accordingly, the statute of limitations for such a crime will be 10 years.

Bribe

Receiving a bribe is regulated by Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The maximum penalty for taking a bribe is specified in paragraph 6 of this article and can reach imprisonment of up to 15 years.

Accordingly, a crime such as taking a bribe can be equated to serious crimes.

It should be noted that not only receiving a bribe is also a criminal offense. According to Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, giving a bribe is also a crime.

According to this article, the maximum penalty can reach 15 years of imprisonment; accordingly, in some cases this crime can be classified as a serious crime; accordingly, the statute of limitations for this crime can also reach 15 years.

Misappropriation and embezzlement

The perpetrator may be released from criminal liability, regardless of what part of the charge he is charged with, if the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal liability has expired, which is from the date of commission of the crime:

for part 1 – 2 years;
for part 2 – 6 years;
for Part 3 and Part 4 – 10 years.

Lawyers with extensive experience in economic cases

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The staff consists of only professional lawyers. We are convinced that only experienced specialists can provide the highest quality legal services, therefore the minimum legal experience of our lawyers is 20 years; all of them have long experience as investigators in the past. The lawyers of JSC “Trial Advocate” have hundreds of won cases on economic crimes.
Lawyers of JSC “Trial Advocate” provide their services to both suspects and accused, victims and witnesses. In addition, we are always ready to cooperate with legal entities.
After signing an agreement with the client, lawyers will immediately begin providing legal services. Any information communicated to specialists is protected by law as attorney-client privilege, so you do not have to worry about their public disclosure.

Limitation period

Now, after clarifying the basic definitions, let’s move on to studying the features of attracting criminals accused of the group of violations under consideration.

The statute of limitations for financial crimes is a legal institution that regulates the time limits for which punishment is likely to be imposed on the offender. This period starts from the moment the offense is committed.

As for the duration of this time period, the legislation here is guided by the severity of the offense. These points are indicated in Article 78 of the Criminal Code. General rules establish the following criteria in such situations:

minor violations require a 2-year waiting period;
acts of moderate gravity require a six-year sentence;
serious crimes carry a period of 10 years;
Particularly serious offenses increase the statute of limitations to 15 years.

These standards say that during the specified time the investigation has the right to collect evidence and transfer the case to court. If this period has expired, criminal proceedings will not be initiated due to the statute of limitations.

Important! In situations where the accused is absconding, the period in question is suspended. .

The statute of limitations for such offenses limits the period when the investigation has the right to bring the culprit to justice. Accordingly, such circumstances allow the renewal of the statute of limitations if the offender is likely to repent and turn himself in. The second option is to detain the offender by representatives of law enforcement agencies. Let’s look at the nuances of the time being described in more detail, because current legal standards require a set of specific characteristics.

Peculiarities

The standard described above for suspending the limitation period due to the impossibility of identifying the culprit is considered the first distinguishing feature. The same criterion is used in a situation with evasion of payment of a court fine, which is allowed by Art. 76.2. In this situation, we are talking about replacing criminal punishment for people who have committed an illegal act for the first time with economic sanctions.

The second feature that presupposes a statute of limitations for economic crimes is the court’s decision on the application of this measure to people facing capital punishment. This point is interpreted by lawyers as follows: if the court decides that it is impossible to apply the appropriate punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the defendant will avoid this fate.

Civil aspect

Now let’s look at the features of the statute of limitations for recovery of economic crimes in the field of civil law. This point becomes a logical criterion due to the specificity of the crime. Considering that financial fraud causes material losses to the injured party, the likely filing of a claim for damages cannot be ruled out.

In this situation, lawyers are guided by the general limitation period of three years. However, even in this situation, there is a possibility of suspension and extension of the specified time. In this case, the total period during which it will be possible to file a claim is 15 years. At the end of the specified time, the court rejects applications demanding compensation for damages.