The state is trying to support young families. The Family Capital Institute has helped many people find a new home and give their children an education .
But it also gave birth to a whole class of scammers profiting from people’s legal illiteracy. Knowing their schemes will help you avoid mistakes. It is precisely in order to notify you of the possible consequences that threaten you in the event of fraud with maternity capital, this article was written.
What is certificate misuse?
Any actions with maternity capital that go beyond the scope of Law N 256-FZ “On additional measures to support families with children.” Article 7 of this law contains clear instructions on how money received from the state can be spent.
The law provides that there are only the following ways to realize capital:
- Payment for children's education.
- Home improvement.
- Adaptation of disabled children.
- Contribution to mom's pension.
Attempts to spend the subsidy on something else will be considered illegal and amount to fraud.
Many families misuse funds, not being aware of the responsibility for their actions.
Since the introduction of family capital as a method of social support, there have been rumors that the capital can be legally cashed out, spent on purchasing a car or other needs not provided for by the Federal Law.
And this results in bad consequences: transactions are recognized as fraudulent , young people get into trouble with the law.
Responsibility for misuse of family subsidies
Responsibility for using maternal capital for purposes other than its intended purpose is regulated by the second part of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This crime is punishable by up to two years of probation.
For someone accused of fraud, everything will depend on the scale of the criminal act and how many people were involved in the criminal scheme.
According to the Department of Economic Crimes, most of the economic crimes investigated in their department relate to fraud with family capital.
The verification of misuse is initiated by the Pension Fund , one of whose departments is responsible for monitoring such cases.
The fact that any unlawful actions with maternity capital is regarded by the Criminal Code as fraud with significant damage plays against potential fraudsters.
Significant damage, according to the Criminal Code, is equal to an amount of at least 10 thousand rubles. What responsibility for misuse can be incurred if fraud is proven in court?
- Correctional work.
- House arrest.
- Suspended prison sentence.
- Fine.
According to statistics from the same Department of Economic Crimes, suspended imprisonment is most often used.
If aggravating factors are found, such as giving a bribe to an official or a conspiracy prepared in advance by a group of people, the punishment can reach up to 10 years in prison.
But these cases are rare and are possible only with very large-scale fraud with cash subsidies.
When and how can you spend your certificate?
According to standard rules, maternity capital can be used three years after the birth of the child for which the certificate was received. But the law provides for a number of exceptional cases in which money can be spent even immediately after birth: a down payment or paying off a mortgage debt, paying for kindergarten, Putin payments, buying things for the social adaptation of a disabled child.
After the child turns three years old, it will be possible to buy a home without a mortgage, build a house, pay for a private school, clubs, university, or use the money for the mother’s pension.
You cannot spend maternity capital for other purposes; cashing out is also prohibited. For spending funds on buying a car, renovating a house or updating furniture, criminal liability may be imposed under Art. 76.2 and 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The entire maternity capital can be divided, rather than spent on one goal. For example, give 50,000 rubles to pay for an art school, 300,000 to pay for a university, and save another 100,000 for your mother’s pension.
An application for the use of maternity capital must be sent to the Pension Fund in person, by mail, through the MFC, through government services or the Pension Fund website. You need to attach a passport and a number of other documents to it, the list of which depends on the purpose of spending the maternity capital.
Maternity capital fraud
There are many fraudulent schemes involving family capital. The most common motive that encourages people to join them by handing over a certificate is legal illiteracy and the desire for easy money.
There are companies that offer to cash out maternity capital for a small amount or even free of charge.
Sometimes real estate firms do this, offering to resell the apartment several times, cashing out the money as a result of several real estate transactions.
Sometimes fraud consists not only of an attempt to cash out or misuse the subsidy, but also of an illegal attempt to obtain a capital certificate.
If a person uses fake documents when applying for maternity capital, and then this is discovered, he will again be judged under Article 159.
Every year, methods for detecting fraud are improving. And although scammers assure young people that there will be no problems with the law, punishment cannot be avoided in most cases.
It is no coincidence that employees of the Pension Fund immediately inform those applying for a subsidy that fraud is very strictly punished by law.
REFERENCE. The benefits from such actions are minimal. Fraudulent firms will either leave their clients with a tiny percentage of their transactions or nothing at all. And in the latter case, it will not even be possible to go to court, because the fact of a criminal conspiracy will be revealed.
Arbitrage practice
If you look at court decisions in cases related to the misuse of family capital, two interesting facts will emerge:
- Over the past four years, control over the use of MSC funds has increased.
- The Pension Fund, if it needs to win in court, will conduct all the necessary examinations and force them to pay compensation.
Here, for example, is the appeal ruling in case No. 33-2833/2013 of the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic. Citizen K. was found guilty of misuse of maternal capital.
Having agreed with a third party to purchase a new home, she, firstly, received a loan for its purchase, and secondly, sent an application for maternity capital.
After the funds received from the loan were given to third parties, the transaction was closed, and the MSK certificate was used to repay the loan. A week later, citizen K. decided to cancel the deal to sell the apartment and return the money. Thus, citizen K.’s maternity capital funds were cashed out and then used to buy a car (can MK be spent on buying a car?).
This scheme is typical for those wishing to cash out maternity capital. By colluding with third parties and promising them a cash kickback from the transaction, many hope to get easy money. The verdict passed by the court obliged citizen K. to compensate for the damage caused to the Federal Budget.
The allocated shares must be equal
The law does not regulate the specific size or ratio of shares. And here there are two possible options:
- Allocate equal shares to all family members.
- Allocate shares, taking into account the size of maternity capital and the cost of the apartment. Let's say a family of 4 people bought an apartment for 5,000,000 rubles and used 500,000 rubles in capital. First, you need to determine each person’s share in the capital: 500,000/4 = 125,000 rubles. Now let’s calculate the share in the apartment: 125,000 from 5,000,000 = 1/40. That is, the minimum share of two children is 2/40 or 1/20 for each child.
Can bailiffs arrest and take away social capital?
According to Federal Law No. 229 “On Enforcement Proceedings”, social subsidies are not included in the list of funds that can be seized by bailiffs. In addition, maternity capital funds are stored in pension fund accounts, so they cannot be seized or physically seized.
A maternity capital certificate is not money, but the right to dispose of the money received. Based on this, the actions of the bailiffs to confiscate maternity capital will be considered illegal.
REFERENCE. If the bailiffs are going to seize the money that has been deposited into your account, this is also illegal. At any stage of receiving MSC, it is not your money, but the state’s money, you only decide how to use it.
How to get maternity capital
In 2021, it will be easier to receive and spend capital. Thus, the decision to issue a state certificate will be made in 5 working days, and not in 15, as now. An application for the use of maternal capital will be reviewed in 10 working days instead of a month, and the money will be transferred within another 5 days.
You can receive a certificate upon application or without an application. Without applications, certificates are issued for children born after April 15, 2021. In this case, the registry office itself transmits the data to the Pension Fund; parental participation is not required. But we still recommend calling and checking the process, as the system may malfunction. Previously, parents had to submit an application, collect documents and personally visit the Pension Fund or MFC to obtain a certificate.
What are the penalties for government subsidy scams?
It all depends on the scale of the crime.
The smallest punishment for fraud with maternity capital can be incurred if you alone try to illegally spend a government subsidy and mislead a certain circle of people.
Such a scam does not contain elements of conspiracy, since the criminal acted alone, and does not contain elements of bribery or intimidation of an official.
If they enter into a criminal conspiracy and deliberately create a criminal scheme, fraudsters can count on a real sentence of up to four years in prison.
In the best case, you can count on 480 hours of correctional labor and a fine equal to the salary of the convicted person for 2 years.
If you enter into an agreement with a corrupt official, the punishment can even reach 6 years in prison with a fine of 800 thousand rubles. If a scam involving maternity capital is discovered, the members of the criminal group will bear collective responsibility.
Review of judicial practice. Examples
Illustration of punishment for a fraudulent scheme with state payments using the example of a decision of the Nizhny Novgorod regional court:
Citizen M., accused of fraud with state payments, entered into a criminal conspiracy with citizen B, who promised to be the first to sell real estate at an inflated price.
The purchased house did not meet the formal requirements of the law. The price itself cannot be a reason for litigation.
According to the MSC law, the subsidy can be spent on repairs or purchase of real estate. But the condition of the house purchased by citizen M. was terrible: there were no basic means of communication, glass or frames on the windows, and dry leaves were scattered around the house. By all indications, the house can be considered abandoned.
The Supreme Court ruled to recognize the real estate sale transaction as illegal and ordered citizen M. to return the funds to the Pension Fund.
ATTENTION. The case itself was initiated solely because of the dilapidation of the purchased housing. Fraudulent schemes with inflated prices and kickbacks from them are the most stable.
Let's consider the case of judicial practice with cashing out PF funds through a fictitious loan. In 2011, in the Kurgan region, citizen L., having forged documents and taken possession of a certificate for family capital, submitted an application to the Pension Fund for payment on a previously taken out loan.
The loan by citizen L. was taken from a shell company, which she herself managed through third parties. The application was approved by the Pension Fund, and the money ended up in the account of the shell company.
And at that moment, when L. finally intended to cash out money from the LLC’s account, the prosecutor’s office uncovered her criminal plan. Court decision: to deprive citizen L. of her liberty for a period of 1 year and 6 months with the obligation to reimburse the amount of the subsidy to the state.
As you can see, a lot of fraudulent schemes with maternity capital have been invented. People who do not have deep knowledge of jurisprudence cannot assess all the risks of participating in such schemes and become victims of scammers.
Punishment for such scams is a real prospect for lovers of easy money. Judicial practice only confirms this.
