Fraud on an especially large scale

Responsibility for fraud, which is a criminal act, is defined in Article No. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. What the punishment for this crime will be depends on the scale of the theft of someone else's property or the acquisition of the right to it.

Variation in maximum fines from 120,000 rubles. or salary for 1 year up to 1,000,000 rubles. or income for 3 years. What maximum possible sentence will be awarded also depends on the size of the damage - from 360 hours of compulsory labor to 10 years in prison for very large thefts.

Fraud on a large scale provides for the same punishment as for fraudsters who used their official position for the crime. This is a fine of 100,000–500,000 rubles. or withholding wages for 1–3 years, imprisonment for up to 6 years, forced labor for up to 5 years. But determining exactly what size a given crime is can be controversial.

The prosecution may exaggerate the damages, and if the court recognizes this, the punishment for the fraudster may be unreasonably severe. If a young guy gets caught like this, then too severe a responsibility can deprive him of the opportunity to reform and make him a notorious repeat offender.

To avoid excessive punishment for fraud, you need to contact a good lawyer in time, who will not allow the damage to be recognized in a greater amount than it actually is.

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Fraud concept

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation interprets fraud as an act aimed at stealing valuable things or the right to them through deception or abuse of trust.
In this case, the owner transfers them to the fraudster himself, unaware of the possible deception. Fraud is a special form of theft. Today, these types of crimes are becoming increasingly large-scale and sophisticated.

Modern technologies provide criminals with many ways to carry out fraudulent activities in banks, insurance and other organizations. People are deceived in person and online.

There are 2 forms of committing fraudulent actions:

Deception: through lies, a person is misled and his property is seized (for example, falsification of documents).
Abuse of a person’s trust for the same purposes: theft of money and property. Trust may be due to family ties, acquaintance or official position.

What is fraud?

Fraud is a type of criminal economic crime, which is the taking of someone else's property for personal purposes through deception or breach of trust. The victim, who has become a victim of a criminal, voluntarily gives him money, things, real estate, and other material assets. After some time, he realizes that the attacker was not acting in his interests.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for several forms of fraud:

simple composition;
crimes in the field of lending;
crimes when receiving social benefits, pensions and compensation;
crimes in the field of use of electronic means of payment;
insurance crimes;
crimes in the field of computer information.

Each composition defines the minimum amount of funds, in the event of loss of which the victim has the right to apply for the initiation of a criminal case. If your application was refused or the criminal case based on your application was illegally terminated, we recommend that you seek help from a fraud lawyer at SKP. We will make sure that law enforcement agencies respond to your request and correctly classify the act as fraud.

Large and particularly large scale crime

According to Part 6 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, fraud on a large scale is the illegal receipt of more than 250,000 rubles due to deception or misleading of the victim. As a rule, large-scale fraud is dismissed in the following areas:

insurance;
computer activities;
entrepreneurship;
issuing loans;
manipulation of payment bank cards.

In case of prolonged deception of the victim and systematic misappropriation of sums of money due to non-fulfillment of the terms of the contract, large-scale fraud is considered, in which the amount of damage exceeds 3 million rubles.

Important! During the trial of a fraud case, judges often classify as major fraud only cases in which the victim has lost more than 1.5 million rubles.

Fraud on an especially large scale includes cases where property or funds in the amount of more than a million rubles are taken from the victim. Most often, fraud committed in the following areas of activity is characterized by a particularly large scale:

property fraud;
alternative health services;
pseudoscientific research;
Internet;
real estate trade;
issuing loans.

The limit at which a crime falls under Part 7 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation depends on the composition of the crime and the method of taking property:

1 million or more rubles for entrepreneurs who have entered into an agreement with the victim and are unwilling to comply with the terms of the joint agreement.
1 million or more rubles for unclassified economic crimes.
Over 6 million rubles in scams in the areas of lending, insurance, subsidies and the use of bank payment cards.
More than 12 million rubles for failure to fulfill the contract.

How are fraud cases investigated?

Cases of fraud are within the competence of investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Typically, an inquiry is carried out when a crime is committed under Part 1 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The rest of the cases are being investigated by investigators from investigative departments. As a rule, the preliminary investigation takes from 2 to 6 months.

The inquiry officer and investigator must establish the presence of the following circumstances:

crime event;
the circumstances of the fraudulent activity;
the guilt of the suspect;
the nature and extent of the damage caused.

When conducting investigative activities, the requirements of criminal procedural legislation must be observed. If the investigation is delayed and the responsible officials fail to act, it is advisable for the victim to seek help from an SKP company lawyer. Our specialists will familiarize themselves with the case materials and, if there are violations of mandatory procedures, will file a complaint against the actions or inactions of the inquiry officer and investigator.

Large scale in fraud: corpus delicti

To begin with, a few words need to be said about what constitutes this illegal act.

The law interprets it as the taking of property (including money) of the injured party by deception or gaining confidence in it in various ways.

From the perspective of criminal law, fraud should be distinguished from theft, robbery or robbery. After all, the victim gives his money or things voluntarily.

In addition, as a rule, attackers do not use physical violence against her. Moreover, often the deception is revealed only after a certain time.

Both administrative and criminal liability are established for illegal actions. The determining factor is the amount of damage caused.

Provided that the amount does not exceed two and a half thousand rubles, the culprit will be punished under the Administrative Code. Otherwise, the provisions of the special part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation come into force.

The punishment depends on whether the fraud was carried out alone or whether an organized group of citizens specially created for illegal actions worked. Such an entity must include at least two people.

From what amount does large-scale fraud begin? The qualifying feature is the harm caused, expressed in monetary terms.

Separate sanctions are provided for large and especially large scale fraud. Specific amounts are indicated in the notes to some articles of the Criminal Code devoted to the varieties of this crime.

When there are no relevant instructions, you must be guided by paragraph 4 of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It outlines the general value of missing property in all property crimes (Chapter 21 of the Code).

What is the damage?

Crimes against property are characterized by the presence of material losses. They can be expressed in monetary or other forms.

Provided that the fraud was aimed at financial assets, the damage is considered to be the corresponding amount that the attackers took possession of.

When property has become the subject of unlawful attacks, the damage is equal to its actual value at the time the act was committed. This point is emphasized by the Supreme Court in Resolution of the Plenum No. 48 of November 30, 2017.

At the stage of criminal proceedings, the investigator may order examinations, including commodity examinations. Their results help determine the amount of harm caused.

Some features of the definition of damage are related to the object of the attack. In a situation involving unlawful receipt of payments from the state, the total amount of money illegally transferred to the person is taken into account for qualification.

In case of fraud with bank cards, the total amount of transactions carried out is taken into account. It is easy to order a statement of card account movements from a bank office.

What laws mention large and especially large damages?

Major damage and especially large damage are interpreted in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since both of these criteria are necessarily taken into account when analyzing a criminal case and cannot be applied to administrative offenses.

Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation indicates specific amounts of money at which damage should be considered large and especially large, since it determines the preventive measures that are prescribed for crimes against property. This includes theft, robbery, robbery, fraud, etc.

Also read: What is the punishment for fraud, articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Large and especially large damages are used to qualify criminal offenses. These concepts are also found in Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which defines preventive measures for offenses in the economic sphere. These include crimes such as illegally obtaining a loan, market manipulation, etc.

Basically, companies and individual entrepreneurs become the subject here, so the amounts of damage can be much higher than those listed in Chapter 21.

It's time to reconsider the extent of theft

I fly into the buffet, I don’t have a penny of money, Change ten million...

I. Ilf, E. Petrov. "Golden calf"

According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2021, more than 2 million crimes were registered, with about 1 million being theft of other people’s property, committed through theft, fraud, robbery or robbery. That is, in 50% of cases we are talking about the application of rules governing criminal liability for property crimes, including determining the amount of damage.

If we discard crimes related to theft in the field of business, where the amount of damage is determined by special provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the most “popular” crimes (against property) are regulated by the notes to Art. 158 of the Criminal Code, defining large-scale theft as exceeding 250 thousand rubles, and especially large-scale theft as 1 million rubles.

The size of the theft is essential for qualifying the actions of property thieves and entails legal consequences that affect the possibility of terminating the criminal case.

Let's look at the example of Art. 158 of the Criminal Code. If simple theft (Part 1) is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to 2 years (this is a crime of minor gravity), then for theft on a large scale (Part 3) punishment is possible in the form of imprisonment for up to 6 years, and for an especially large amount - up to 10 years (part 4).

This “magic of numbers” leads to theft of property worth over 250 thousand rubles. entails the initiation of a criminal case, in which compensation for harm to the victim does not imply the possibility of reconciliation with him and applying for termination of criminal prosecution, since large and especially large amounts of theft constitute a serious crime.

This order of things has existed since December 2003 (previously, the amount of theft was calculated in relation to the minimum wage), and has not changed since then. But life has changed significantly during this time. According to statistics, from December 2003 to November 2021, inflation exceeded 270%. That is, 1 million rubles. taking into account inflation turns into more than 3.7 million rubles, and 250 thousand rubles. – almost 925.5 thousand rubles.

These numbers are quite material. According to the analytical resource, in 2003 the average price of a domestic car was 150 thousand rubles, and foreign cars 600 thousand rubles; in 2021, such prices correspond to 700 thousand rubles. and 1.9 million rubles. respectively.

The cost of the consumer basket in Russia, according to statistics, in 2003 was 3,577 rubles, and in 2021 - about 14.5 thousand rubles.

Prices for gasoline, a square meter of housing, and the rates of major world currencies against the Russian currency have increased in similar proportions. The average salary also increased – from 5,499 rubles. in 2003 to 48.3 thousand rubles. in 2021

And only the Criminal Code, like an indestructible rock, “stands” on the 2003 criteria determining the amount of damage!

A natural question arises: who benefits from this?

For me, as a lawyer, the answer is obvious. This “status quo” is beneficial to law enforcement agencies interested in increasing the rate of investigations of serious crimes - and there are more and more of them, since if 1 million rubles stolen in 2003. was indeed a very large amount, then this year theft of this size is becoming more common due to the depreciation of the national currency.

As a result, the scale of large and especially large theft, which is completely inconsistent with modern realities, becomes a powerful “weapon” of law enforcement agencies and “produces” indicators of detection and investigation of serious crimes that are not substantiated by reality. This is expressed in the selection of excessively strict preventive measures in the form of detention of those accused of “large” and “especially large” thefts, as well as in the court assigning real terms of imprisonment to them.

How much has been said and talked about the humanization of criminal legislation, the need to revise a number of provisions of the Criminal Code and transfer certain crimes to the category of administrative offenses, while pre-trial detention centers and colonies remain overcrowded with property thefts in the amount calculated according to outdated criteria as “large” and “especially large”.

The Ministry of Finance is racking its brains on how to cut costs, proposals are being made to reduce the army and the number of law enforcement agencies, although, in my opinion, the method lies on the surface - it is necessary to “synchronize” the given norms of the Criminal Code with reality. For example, establish in the notes to Art. 158 of the Criminal Code, large-scale theft is 1 million rubles, and especially large-scale theft is 4 million rubles.

The results, I believe, will not be long in coming and will have a positive impact on all participants in criminal proceedings: victims, with whom they will begin to reconcile (such cases can be terminated at the pre-trial stage, and the courts will deal with more significant cases), violators, who will be able, after compensating for the damage, to remain freedom, and, finally, penitentiary institutions, which will cease to function in emergency mode. All this will significantly reduce budget expenses. It's up to the legislator.

Types of fraud on an especially large scale

Many people are interested in: how much does large-scale fraud mean in monetary terms? If the case concerns the injured party, then it is advisable for her to correctly refer to the rule of law in the statement. On the contrary, the accused should know what to prepare for in the worst case scenario.

As a general rule, a large size starts from an amount exceeding 250 thousand rubles. However, certain clauses are present in the articles regarding specific types of fraud.

The same applies to especially large losses. Article 158 states that the damage must exceed 1 million. Now let's look at some types of fraud.

Fraud on a large scale (Part 3 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

Responsibility for the culprit arises under this article in the case when the object of the attackers’ attacks is not separately identified. This is a common situation for most types of fraud.

Under Part 3 of Article 159, deliberate failure to fulfill contractual obligations with the participation of business representatives is also qualified.

Let's imagine a typical situation - the supplier handed over the goods to the buyer. However, the latter initially had no intention of making payments for him.

For the purpose of bringing a citizen to justice under the relevant part of the norm in question of the Criminal Code, large-scale fraud is considered to be fraud in the amount of 3,000,000 rubles. Damage beyond 12 million will be especially large.

In the field of lending (Article 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

Some citizens seek to obtain a loan using workarounds.
To do this, the creditor is provided with false information or forged documents. This could be a stolen passport or a fictitious certificate of income. Often, important information necessary for making a decision on issuing a loan is deliberately withheld. There are clients who do not inform the bank or other financial institution that they already have outstanding debts.

Sometimes criminal acts are committed with the participation of the lender’s employees themselves. In this case, we can talk about a group of people.

In relationships related to lending, fraud in an amount exceeding the threshold of 1,500,000 rubles is considered major. In turn, a particularly large size starts from 6 million.

When receiving social benefits (Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

This type of criminal action consists of obtaining pensions, benefits, subsidies, and other types of financial and material support from the state and local authorities by providing false information and fictitious documents.

There is also a downside to fraudulent activities. Let’s assume that a citizen received assistance legally until a certain point. However, then the rights to it were lost, but the competent authorities were not informed about this.

Then the illegally obtained funds turn into damage. A large size starts from an amount of over 250 thousand rubles, and an especially large one starts from a million.

Using issued payment cards (Article 159.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

Today, many people do not use cash, but prefer to use debit, credit, and salary bank cards of various types. It is not surprising that the funds located there are the object of attention of scammers.

Different schemes are used for this. Let's say a special device is installed in an ATM that allows you to read a PIN code and other important information on the card. As a result, access to the money located there opens up.

Fraudsters, under various pretexts, find out the card number and code from particularly gullible people. Then it is not difficult to take possession of the funds.

A request to transfer money to a card for a non-existent product can also be considered a sign of a crime. In terms of qualifying the amount of damage, it is the same as with the previous composition.

In the field of insurance (Article 159.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

This type of illegal action is directly related to obtaining compensation from the insurer by submitting false or forged documents for payments.

Several more situations can be cited to illustrate the elements of the crime. In one of them, a citizen deliberately imitated the occurrence of an insured event (set fire to property or deliberately crashed a car).

There is also an option practiced by some car enthusiasts. They have MTPL and CASCO policies issued by different insurance companies. If there is an accident, they try to apply for compensation twice.

The amount of damage that allows us to talk about a particularly large amount is given in the note to Article 159.1. It amounts to 6 million rubles or more.

When working with computer information (Article 159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

This type of encroachment is rapidly gaining momentum. It is the responsibility of hackers who gain access to data stored on the computers of government agencies, banks, and strategically important enterprises.

Often, the victim himself contributes to the attacks without taking proper measures to protect the equipment and his passwords. Information can not only be stolen, but also damaged beyond repair.

For the crime in question, the damage is determined by the value of the data. To qualify the size, Art. 158 of the Criminal Code.

What amounts constitute large and especially large damages?

Let us consider separately what amounts are defined by law as damage on an especially large scale and on a large scale, since these two criteria in their monetary equivalent have completely different meanings.

It’s worth noting right away that in case of fraud, the amount of damage will be exceptions to the generally accepted rule, so we will present them separately.

How is the amount of damage calculated?

The commentary to the Criminal Code does not provide a detailed answer to the question presented; for this purpose, the Plenum of the RF Armed Forces issued a Resolution “On Judicial Practice on theft, robbery and robbery,” which contains recommendations for law enforcement officers in resolving such cases.

The following rules currently apply:

If we are talking about property, then the size is established based on the market value of the objects at the time the crime was committed. For example, if a TV purchased for 35,000 RUR is stolen, but at the time of the theft it cost 15,000 RUR, then the damage caused is equal to the last indicator;
When it becomes necessary to determine the value of property, it is advisable to invite an expert who can give an objective assessment. Based on the rendered conclusion, the issue of determining the amount of damage for initiating a criminal case is decided;
Damage subject to compensation is calculated not only on the basis of the value of the property, but also taking into account additional indexation. The level of inflation in the state is taken into account;
For items of historical, artistic or other value, a different procedure is provided. They are more valuable than modern household items. To establish the value, experts are necessarily invited to indicate not only the cost, but also the social value of the item. In practice, the theft of valuable exhibits in any case does not constitute insignificant damage to an individual, that is, a criminal case is always initiated;
If disputes and disagreements arise between the parties, the investigator may decide to bring in an outside expert to conduct an independent investigation.

Major damage

The amount of major damage in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is defined in note 4 of Art. 158 ch. 21 and is designated as amounts exceeding 250,000 rubles, but it is further stipulated that they may be different for a certain group of offenses and range from 1,500,000 rubles. These are the crimes:

fraud in the credit sector and using payment cards;
offenses in the areas of insurance, business and computer technology.

Another separate exception is offenses in the field of non-fulfillment of an agreement in business activities. What amount is considered large in this particular case? From 3,500,000 rub.

The sizes of large and especially large sizes differ according to the types of offenses. If we talk about Ch. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, then according to it the amount of this type of harm is determined as an amount from 1,500,000 rubles. There are exceptions here too. For example, when limiting competition (Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), how much is a large amount in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation? In this case, the damage will be considered major if it is more than 10,000,000 rubles.

Particularly large damage

According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, damage on an especially large scale is defined as an amount of more than a million rubles, but in 2012 some changes were made to the code, according to which it is considered an amount of 6 million rubles or more for fraud in the following areas:

in credit;
using payment cards;
insurance;
computer technologies.

4 years later, Art. ceased to apply. 159.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for fraud in business activities. Instead, there are now h.ch. 6 and 7 art. 159, according to which large and especially large amounts according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation range from 12 million rubles.

What Affects Relative Valuation

The assessment of damage is influenced by such criteria as the social danger of the crime committed, the market price of the object, etc. Now many lawyers note the need to introduce a differentiated approach to determining the amount of damage, since in some offenses it is not taken into account against whom they were committed - legal entities.
or physical persons, as well as individual entrepreneurs. Some crimes may also be of a continuing nature, as in cases of criminal acts by company accountants who engage in illegal cash flows over a long period of time. In these cases, the court will take into account the total amount of all improperly spent funds.

When assessing the value of property, sales receipts or other documents that contain information regarding the value of a citizen’s property must be taken into account. The financial condition of the citizen or organization at the time of the crime committed against them and the relationship between it and the amount of damage caused must also be taken into account.

Reference. When the damage that has been caused to funds is determined (theft, robbery, fraud), then both cash and non-cash funds are taken into account, depending on which of them became the target of the criminal’s attack.

If these objects are of particular value from the point of view of art or history, then special experts are invited to evaluate them in monetary terms. They are the ones who determine it, and also take into account the importance of objects for society and culture.

To assess the damage, a special examination of the citizen’s property is carried out. Experts are also invited to determine the value of the vehicle. If we are talking about an accident, then you can contact an independent expert to accurately calculate the damage to the car. The resulting paper must be submitted to the investigation.

If during investigative activities a dispute arises over the assessment of damage, it is best to contact the same independent expert. However, here one point should be taken into account: the injured party, as the most interested in this issue, will most likely need to pay for his services.

Failure to fulfill contracts in business

This type of scam was recently added to the Code and is divided into separate parts, taking into account the extent of the harm.

The sixth part covers fraudulent acts, the damage from which reaches more than three million rubles. The seventh - from twelve million. Both parts have a reference to part 5 of the article.

A particularly qualifying feature is determined based on the Notes to the article. The sanctions under Part 6 are completely identical to those established by Part 3 of the Code. The sanctions of Part 7 and Part 4 are also the same.

These illegal actions are limited to the sphere of business activity and arise in the event of a deliberate refusal of the parties to fulfill their obligations under contracts.

The parties are only legal entities in the commercial sphere and (or) individual entrepreneurs.

Punishment for fraud on an especially large scale

Despite the different elements of the crimes considered, they are united by the same responsibility. It consists of the following penalties, which depend on the severity of the consequences.

Liability for fraud:

up to 10 years in prison with a fine of one million rubles;
compensation for damage from wages for the period of serving the sentence (but not more than 3 years);
restriction of freedom for two years.

The last two forms of liability can be applied at the discretion of the court. Not everyone knows what restriction of freedom is. In simple terms, this is a set of restrictions imposed on a person by the court.

They may relate to staying at home at a set time of day, avoiding visiting certain places and public events (Article 53 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, you should visit the local police officer at certain intervals.

In relation to fraud on an especially large scale, restriction of freedom is an additional measure of liability. Its validity period begins after the end of the main punishment.

Who should I report fraud to?

Lawyer Antonov A.P.

In order for justice to prevail, any victim of fraud should file a complaint with the relevant authorities, who, depending on the situation, are authorized to perform the following actions:

- police - identify and find the intruder;

- the prosecutor's office - to establish the guilt of the violator of civil rights and legality;

- the court - determine the measure of restraint and the procedure for its application to the offender.

Based on the direction of activity, when deciding to write a statement regarding circumstances that led to the loss of money or property as a result of deception or one’s own gullibility, the victim should remember the following.

— The police are engaged in the primary collection of evidence, evidence and the search for the perpetrator in order to initiate a criminal case and transfer it to the prosecutor’s office, therefore, if the perpetrator is unknown and there is no evidence of malicious intent, this is where you should contact.

— The prosecutor’s office has broad powers and, in addition to investigating facts of criminal acts submitted to it by the police, is competent to conduct inspections of any organizations and institutions if an appropriate application is written requesting an audit.

— When there is no need to look for the culprit, and the evidence has been collected, you can, bypassing the previous stages, proceed directly to punishing the fraudster by filing a statement of claim with the appropriate judicial authority, which must necessarily be preceded by an attempt at pre-trial resolution of the dispute.

As soon as the deceived individual realized that he had been misled and the money lent or the property provided had disappeared forever, he should immediately contact the nearest police department, whose employees, regardless of territorial affiliation, must accept statements from affected citizens. If the victim lives in the territory under the jurisdiction of the department, then the search actions and collection of evidence will have to be carried out by them, otherwise all documents, including the protocol, statement and any additional materials, will be transferred to the authorized police department.

Sincerely, lawyer Anatoly Antonov, managing partner of the law firm Antonov and Partners.

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Limitation periods for large-scale fraud

According to Part 3 of Article 20 of the Criminal Procedure Code, any type of fraud relates to cases of private-public prosecution.

This means that a criminal case under this article can only be initiated at the request of the victim. But, unlike cases of private prosecution, it will not stop after the applicant reconciles with his offender.

Therefore, it is important to determine the statute of limitations for fraudulent acts of a certain size - this is the very period during which the victim can demand that the court punish the fraudster. There is a certain algorithm for determining the length of the statute of limitations in criminal proceedings.

Also read: Where to turn if you’ve been scammed by scammers on the Internet

The statute of limitations directly depends on the category of the crime, so the first step is to determine it. Article 15 of the Criminal Code helps in this, which divides all crimes into four categories: minor gravity, moderate gravity, grave, especially grave.

The category is determined depending on the maximum term of imprisonment that can be received.

The most severe punishment for the type of fraudulent activity we are considering is imprisonment for a ten-year term. Therefore, according to Part 4 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the category of crime is grave. The period during which a person can be held criminally liable for a serious crime is 10 years from the date of commission of the act.

Fraud on an especially large scale is the misappropriation of more than 12,000,000 rubles or property worth an equivalent amount, which occurred through deception (including deception).

The maximum sentence for fraudulent actions in this amount is 10 years, which allows the act to be classified as serious. The same applies to those who cheated in excess of 6,000,000 rubles, but in the field of lending or insurance.

What kind of fraud is considered major?

The assessment of damages for fraudulent entrepreneurs and employees of commercial organizations is more flexible compared to the amount determined for individuals who are not engaged in business.

Large amount (CR) in cases of theft in the field of business activity through abuse of trust or deception is considered to be a sum of money or property from 3,000,000 rubles. Fraud is regarded as committed on an especially large scale (OCR), when it comes to an amount of 12,000,000 rubles.

For ordinary citizens, a large amount is considered to be from 250,000 rubles, especially - from 1,000,000 rubles. Such boundaries are defined not only for fraud, but also for theft and any other economic crimes. For fraud in the field of lending and insurance, the Kyrgyz Republic starts counting from 1,500,000 rubles, and the ROC starts from 6,000,000 rubles.

Arbitrage practice

There are many examples of cases from judicial practice that clearly show the essence of large-scale fraud. These include:

Citizen B was the owner of a large construction organization and entered into an agreement with the contractor. The contractor fulfilled his obligations under the contract without violations, after which the construction organization transferred several million to their account. As a result, the contractor left the construction site, and the amount transferred to his account was withdrawn and used for an unknown purpose. By a court decision, the contract manager was sentenced to a fine of 300 thousand rubles and compulsory labor for up to one year.
Citizen B decided to carry out fraudulent activities with real estate. To do this, he entered into a lease agreement with the owner of the premises, citizen R, but for security, he asked for a document on ownership of the premises, which, according to him, was needed for his boss at his current place of work. After citizen R left the city of residence, his tenant put up an advertisement for the sale of housing. There were many buyers for an apartment in the center of Moscow. Citizen B forged a power of attorney for the sale of the property, which he needed to conclude a purchase and sale transaction on behalf of the owner of the apartment. After the transaction was concluded, the owner of the property returned. The court sentenced citizen B to three years in prison, and the real estate transaction was annulled.

Additional questions

How not to become an accomplice and not fall under Art. 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Often people, without realizing it, can get themselves into trouble. For example, an acquaintance asked to take out a loan from a bank because he was not given one due to his bad credit history. The man took out a loan for himself, but in fact he had no intention of paying it off.

If the person who used the loan money does not repay the debt within the time allotted by the bank, then the person in whose name the loan was issued may be punished for this.

According to the law, it does not matter who manages the loan money, because all responsibility is shifted to the person who takes the loan.

And if the loan is not repaid, then the bank can file a lawsuit, and the judge will evaluate the actions of the borrower under Part 2 of Art. 159.1 of the Criminal Code as a group crime.

Therefore, if you do not want to bear criminal liability for fraud, then never apply for a loan to acquaintances, friends and even relatives, without being sure that they will not be able to repay it.

But even if the bank filed a lawsuit, the borrower can avoid criminal liability if he repays the loan in full on time. Since the money will be returned to the bank, there will be no crime, which means the case can be closed.

Which way does judicial practice go?

The Supreme Court gave some clarifications to lower courts. So, in Resolution No. 48 he indicated the following.

In a situation with fraud through several identical actions over different periods of time, a large or especially large amount forms the total value of the stolen property.

When a group of people was involved in a crime, to qualify the amount of damage, the value of any property stolen by each member of the educated community is summed up. In this case, the contribution of the accused in the crime is additionally taken into account.

Courts do not always impose the maximum sentence. They take into account mitigating circumstances, as well as voluntary repayment of damages. As an example, we can cite the verdict of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Samara dated September 13, 2017.

An accountant from one of the enterprises was in the dock. She embezzled money through payroll manipulation.

As a result, the court sentenced the citizen to four years of probation. At the same time, claims for compensation for all damage caused were satisfied.

There is only one way out: the courts take into account the personality of the convicted person and his cooperation with the investigation. Compensation for partially caused damage is also seen as a positive thing.

What to do if you are charged with large-scale fraud

You cannot be fully insured against accusations of fraud.
The impetus may simply be hostile relationships. Banks often threaten with criminal prosecution of loan debtors. Therefore, if a difficult situation arises, the following recommendations will come in handy:

It is important to retain written documents related to the disputed case. This also applies to messages in your email inbox.
If threats are received on your phone, it is advisable to record conversations.
When accusations are made at work, it is useful to enlist the support of colleagues.
When you call an investigator, you should immediately contact a lawyer.

The importance of legal assistance in criminal cases can hardly be overestimated. The main thing is to quickly find a qualified lawyer. He will outline the tactics for all further actions.

Is it possible to challenge the amount of damage?

It is possible to challenge the damage received, but you will need to provide the court or investigation with comprehensive evidence that the real amount does not correspond to that obtained as a result of the expert assessment.

Here we need to consider the standards that the experts relied on when conducting the examination itself. It is possible that they are outdated or do not correspond to the real state of affairs. In this case, you should always request copies of their assessment for consultation with an experienced lawyer.

You can also order your own independent examination, but you will have to pay for it, since you are more interested in this than the culprit himself.

Reporting fraud to the police: contents

Fraud is the theft of property or money through deception or abuse of trust (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 159. Fraud). The police officer is required to fill out an application (Article 12. Responsibilities of the Police) which must indicate:

Victim details: full name, telephone number, residential address, place of birth (Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation Article 141. Statement of crime);
Data of the official to whom the application is sent indicating position and rank. Usually the application is filled out in the name of the head of the police department.
The name of the document being sent is indicated, in this case it is “Application”;
Next, the essence of the crime that occurred should be described in detail and in as much detail as possible. Be sure to indicate the exact sequence of your actions and the actions of the attacker. It is necessary to indicate the time of the incident (by the hour), all the characters involved;
If there are any copies of documents relevant to the case, these must also be attached to the police report for fraud;
Assistance in drawing up should be provided by a police officer:
After describing the events, you should indicate the article under which a criminal case should be initiated - the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 159. Fraud;
A note is made that the applicant has been warned of the consequences for a knowingly false denunciation (Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, Article 141. Statement of a crime);
The document is dated and signed;
If there are documents attached to the application, they are also indicated;

IMPORTANT! After writing the application, a resolution to initiate a criminal case follows (Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, Article 146. Initiation of a criminal case of public prosecution).