Exemption from liability for economic crimes due to the statute of limitations

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.

The Supreme Court has put an end to the dispute over the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution

“The ice has broken, gentlemen of the attorneys!” – there is no other way to evaluate the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction1, adopted in the spring on one of the most important procedural issues that almost every defense lawyer has encountered.

The question concerns the legality of criminal prosecution after the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, defined by Art. 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

From the point of view of the theory of law, there cannot be a dispute in resolving this dilemma due to the direct instructions of the law - a criminal case cannot be instituted, and the instituted case is subject to termination due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution (clause 3, part 1, article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

However, in practice, a free interpretation of the legislative imperative has been observed more than once, which was explained by the procedural independence of the investigator and interrogating officer - they, at their own discretion and with the tacit consent of the leaders and supervising prosecutors, made decisions to initiate criminal cases, collected evidence of the guilt of the suspects (accused) and sent cases to court for consideration on the merits. To the reasonable claims of the defenders of the accused (and in some cases, the victims), they retorted: “We cannot and will not dismiss the case, this is our practice, the court will sort it out.”

Appealing against such clearly illegal actions through prosecutorial supervision, as well as departmental or judicial control, did not bring a positive effect. Such “corporate solidarity” between law enforcement officers and the court not only belittled the law, but also formed erroneous law enforcement practices.

So many lawyers' complaints on this issue have been filed, so many copies have been broken - and all in vain! Finally, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation sorted out this very important procedural issue and took a principled position, disagreeing with the prosecution.

Thus, a resident of the Republic of Bashkortostan appealed under Art. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa, three decisions to initiate a criminal case, issued by the investigator for especially important cases of the second department for the investigation of especially important cases of the republican Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee on the grounds of crimes provided for in Parts 3 and 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code.

The essence of the plaintiff's demands was that after the statute of limitations had expired, a criminal case could not be initiated. However, the courts of the first (December 5, 2021), appellate (January 29, 2021) and cassation (July 28, 2021) instances did not agree with the arguments of the complaint and refused to satisfy it.

As stated in the Supreme Court Resolution of April 1, “...according to paragraph 3 of part 1 of Art. 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, a criminal case cannot be initiated, and the criminal case initiated is subject to termination due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution. At the same time, this provision of the law does not contain a condition for obtaining a person’s consent to refuse to initiate a criminal case on the grounds specified in clause 3 of part 1 of Art. 24 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. However, contrary to the specified requirements of the law, the investigator issued decisions to initiate criminal cases against ˂…˃ the above-mentioned criminal cases, which, when considering the latter’s complaints in accordance with Art. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation was recognized by the court as legal.”

The cassation appeal was submitted to the Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction, which, by a ruling dated May 26, overturned the decision of the appellate instance with the wording: “In violation of the requirements of the law, the appellate court, leaving the court decision unchanged, did not take measures to verify the grounds given in it for refusing satisfaction of the complaint ˂…˃ regarding their compliance with the requirements of the criminal procedure law and did not give a proper assessment of the violations committed during the consideration of the case in the court of first instance.”

At the time of the re-examination of the complaint by the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa in July, the criminal case against the applicant had already been sent to the court for consideration on the merits, therefore the complaint was rejected. However, this circumstance did not prevent the court, taking into account the emerging practice on this issue, from passing an acquittal against the defendant, which was not related to the arguments of the considered complaint.

On July 21, the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa issued an acquittal against K., who was accused of falsifying evidence in a civil case (Part 1 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code). As stated in the verdict, the criminal case, after the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had expired, was initiated illegally, which entails the recognition of all collected and examined evidence as inadmissible.

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan supported the conclusions of the lower court and considered the arguments of the appeal presentation of the prosecutor's office unfounded. As stated in the Appeal Resolution dated September 8 in case No. 22–5054/2021, “The appellate court finds the court’s findings that the accusation <FULL NAME1> is based on inadmissible evidence due to the illegal initiation of a criminal case and the collection of evidence in violation of the requirements of the law, motivated, justified by the case materials and the norms of the law.”

I believe that such an approach will contribute to the formation of uniform judicial practice on this issue.

1 Resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 1, 2021 No. 49-UD21-3-K6, ruling of the Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction dated May 26, 2021 No. 77-2263/2021.

Classification

The types of economic crimes are very diverse. The first classification is the division of actions in the economic sphere into categories. There are crimes of minor and medium gravity, which is logical, also grave and especially grave, which are the most dangerous. This method of division is important for the qualification of the committed act and applies to any type of crime, while being delimited by the sanctions offered by the Criminal Code.

The second classification option is based on the scope of the subject. The main ones include crimes in the field of taxation, credit and settlement, official crimes related to abuse of power, in the field of foreign economics, using budget funds, as well as other options related to the country’s economy.

It is understood that each type in one way or another must cause damage to the financial condition of the state. This reveals the peculiarity of these types of crimes, which have specific features not only in qualification, but also in resolving the issue of criminal prosecution.

Limitation period for criminal prosecution

The limitation period for criminal prosecution is a period of time after which it is no longer possible to bring the perpetrator to the established responsibility. It is counted from the date of completion of the crime. The statute of limitations is directly dependent on the danger of the crime to society. Minor crimes. For crimes classified in this group, the most severe punishment is imprisonment for up to 3 years. The period within which it is possible to bring them to justice expires 2 years from the date of the crime. The most common offenses are: theft, fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, if there are no qualifying criteria; infliction of bodily harm related to minor harm to health, and harm of moderate severity without aggravating circumstances, beatings, threats of murder or serious harm; slander; home penetration; arbitrariness; non-payment of alimony; evasion of taxes and other payments without aggravating features, provided for in Art. 199; insulting a government official and others. Unlawful acts of moderate gravity. In this group, the punishment for intentional acts cannot exceed 5 years in prison, and for careless acts - 3 years. The statute of limitations ends 6 years from the date the crime occurred. These are the following acts: Qualified types of theft: causing significant damage to the victim; with penetration into the storage; from clothing or luggage with the victim. Fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement – ​​causing significant damage and committed by a group of persons. Robbery, extortion in the absence of circumstances aggravating liability. Sexual intercourse between an 18-year-old and a person under 16 years of age. Abuse of powers by the head of a commercial organization, art. 201 and officials of government agencies and organizations with state participation without aggravating features. Traffic violations resulting in serious harm or death to victims, and others. Serious crimes. Serious crimes are committed only with intent, the most severe punishment for them is a maximum of 10 years in prison. The statute of limitations for such acts is 10 years. Such crimes include: especially qualified thefts: with penetration into a home; in large and extra large sizes. Fraud: using official position; resulting in deprivation of the right to housing. Robbery: by a group of persons; with the use of weapons. Qualified types of robbery: with the use of violence; with penetration into housing; on a large scale. Intentional infliction of harm to the health of the victim, classified as serious injury, without particularly qualifying signs. Rape with grave consequences. A number of offenses in the field of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors. Receiving and giving bribes for illegal actions and others. Particularly serious criminal acts. The category of the highest degree of severity of crimes under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for which one can be deprived of liberty for a long period - more than 10 years, is subject to a statute of limitations of 15 years from the date of the act. These are the most dangerous crimes for society, such as: murder; some crimes related to the trafficking of prohibited substances, drugs, psychotropic substances, committed in amounts ranging from significant to especially large; banditry; creation of a criminal community, organization, participation in them, etc. It is possible that a report of a crime may be received by law enforcement agencies after the statute of limitations has expired, or it will come to an end when it is carried out. Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation establishes that in such situations a criminal case cannot be initiated. Therefore, if as a result of the inspection the elements of a crime are established, it is possible to make a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case on the basis of the above norm. When the statute of limitations for liability for a crime expires during the investigation or inquiry, the criminal case initiated in connection with its commission is also terminated by a decision of the person who is in proceedings. If the suspect or accused objects to this decision, the proceedings on the case are completed in accordance with the general procedure, and they are sent to court. When the statute of limitations expires on a case pending in court - if it was received after the expiration of the period, or it expired during the trial, with the consent of the defendant, the court also makes a decision to terminate it. If the defendant does not agree to the termination of proceedings on such grounds, the trial continues as usual. Senior Assistant Prosecutor S.V. Valova

Legal consequences

The crime remains such in any case. However, expiration in criminal law excludes the possibility of conducting investigative actions and prosecuting the guilty person in court. State measures will not be applied to the citizen, and the legal status of a criminal record will not occur.

A person may refuse to stop a criminal trial due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. This is what people do who want to receive confirmation of their own innocence. If the court makes a guilty verdict, no punishment will be applied.

An economic crime is a socially dangerous action that implies an encroachment on relations of an economic or financial nature that ensure the production, sale and consumption of certain types of services and goods. In most cases, these crimes are committed to disrupt the operations of a business for personal financial gain.

Such violations of the law today are predominantly intentional. And if we talk about the signs of these offenses, then when drawing up the picture as a whole, objects and subjects are highlighted. The latter, which is characteristic, are within the strict framework of the generic subject.

From a legal point of view, all these crimes involve unauthorized entry into one of the sectors of the state market, including:

• sales of products;
• distribution;
• exchange, etc.

In addition, business relations between enterprises can also act as an object. Here there is an illegal introduction into the process of bilateral (although there may be more parties) cooperation, and only so that the stable activity of a particular company is destroyed. Thanks to this, attackers have the opportunity to manipulate entrepreneurs and use their property at their own discretion.

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, 2021. 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.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TeCXA_4qFEw%3Ffeature%3Doembed

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The concept of the category of economic crimes in the criminal law of the Russian Federation

Economic crimes are actions of citizens or legal entities that significantly undermine the commercial interests of the target of the attack. This is only a superficial definition, since the meaning of the article on economic offenses is very broad.

Directions in which economic offenses are expressed:

1. Entrepreneurial activity. Several articles in the Criminal Code establish liability for violation of commercial activities. So, in Art. 171 it is prohibited to carry out business activities that were not associated with official registration. Article 172 can also be classified as a business crime, since illegal banking activities are related to profit-making.
2. Violations related to the maintenance of financial documents. A striking example of the most common group of material crimes in Russia. Every year, various institutions register transactions involving the purchase and sale of property without subsequently entering this information into the Unified State Register.
3. Crimes related to the logistics of goods. If we compare the damage caused by illegal actions, then the illegal transportation of large volumes of goods causes the greatest number of losses for the state. Actions related to smuggling or illegal transportation of special equipment are criminal offenses.

Despite the widespread nature of acts in the field of economic activity, the investigation of such offenses often comes to a dead end. The constant improvement of mechanisms for falsifying papers, the complexity of collecting evidence and the lack of a universal system for solving crimes seriously complicates the work of investigative authorities.

At the same time, there are also positive dynamics. In particular, over the past year the level of economic crime in the country as a whole has decreased significantly. This is due, first of all, to the improvement of investigative methods of disclosure.

The prosecutor's office informs

02.12.2021 The prosecutor's office of the Tagilstroevsky district of Nizhny Tagil explains: “Responsibility for violation of private life”

01.12.2021 The prosecutor's office of the Dzerzhinsky district of the city of Nizhny Tagil runs a “hotline” on issues of social protection of people with disabilities

09.11.2021 Weapon inheritance order

08.11.2021 Responsibility for violations during the execution of state defense orders

28.10.2021 From October 1, 2021, the amount of monthly monetary compensation will be indexed to family members of employees who died in the line of duty

28.10.2021 Amendments to the Federal Law of July 13, 2015 No. 218-FZ “On State Registration of Real Estate”

26.10.2021 The Leninsky District Prosecutor's Office operates a hotline regarding the sale of counterfeit alcohol products

20.10.2021 The management organization does not have the right to include in the payment document requirements for repayment of legal costs collected from the consumer

19.10.2021 The state information system for housing and communal services (GIS Housing and Communal Services) operates on the Internet.

18.10.2021 Amendments have been made to the Instructions on the procedure for considering applications and receiving citizens in the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation

13.10.2021 Citizens will be spared from sharp increases in utility bills

04.10.2021 There is a hotline on the issue of turning on the heating in the Tagilstroevsky district of Nizhny Tagil

29.09.2021 The procedure for collecting wages during bankruptcy proceedings

29.09.2021 Features of criminal liability for committing thefts that have signs of insignificance

29.09.2021 From March 1, 2022, the procedure for obtaining permits to import medical devices for seriously ill patients will be simplified

20.09.2021 Features of bringing employees to disciplinary liability for committing corruption offenses

17.09.2021 Basic guarantees of voting rights and ways to protect them

14.09.2021 Responsibility for obstructing the exercise of electoral rights and the work of the election commission

14.09.2021 Ways to protect citizens' voting rights

10.09.2021 Criminal liability is provided for the production, storage or transportation for the purpose of distribution or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision of services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life or health of consumers

Main types of economic crimes

All crimes of this kind are divided into several types; let’s get acquainted with the features of each of them.

Crimes aimed at disturbing the balance in social relations

Such relationships, as is known, are a guarantee of high-quality financial and economic activities. The group of offenses itself includes three subgroups.

Crimes that violate public relations

The purpose of such relations is to protect the interests of private entrepreneurs. This category includes two subgroups.

1. Violations in which there is interference in the activities of private entrepreneurs, which, in turn, negatively affects many government agencies.
2. Violations involving interference exclusively in certain sectors of private enterprise.

Crimes targeting imbalances in resource distribution

The next group also includes two subgroups, let's consider them.

1. Violations in which attackers illegally interfere with property distribution, which negatively affects public relations.
2. Violations in which interference occurs exclusively in the property distribution industry.

Crimes affecting economic activity

We are talking about those attacks that are resorted to to obtain various kinds of material benefits.

Crimes encroaching on foreign economic relations

Finally, the last group includes those offenses that encroach on public relations, which, in turn, act as a guarantor of activity in the external economy.

Note! The classification given above represents only a partial division into types in the economic sphere. However, using this classification is the best option, allowing you to more accurately understand the characteristics of each group

What is a statute of limitations

A statute of limitations is a type of statute of limitations. It is the same for all offenses in the economic sphere and is 3 years. At the same time, tax authorities highlight the statute of limitations:

• minimum (2 months);
• shortened (no more than 1 year);
• general (3 years).

This is an important concept not only for the offender, but also for the plaintiff. For the injured party, this is the period of time during which he has the right to apply to the court for help.

It can be general (lasts 3 years) and special (lasts less or more, it depends on certain factors).

Note that the limitation period begins from the moment the injured party learned of the deception. This period can be interrupted (occurs when the offender is hiding from the law), and then resumed.

Tax officials can hold an organization accountable (file a claim in court) only after:

• conduct a tax audit;
• draw up an act;
• will send a notice to the taxpayer.

The law allows an exception to be made only when the statute of limitations or the guilt of the “violator” has not been proven.

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the limitation period

Colleagues, the article is really good, there are references to international law, which made me very happy, however, an incident happened in my life: the Plaintiff filed a statement of claim in court against my client (Defendant). The court accepted the claim and considered it in a simplified manner, because The defendant changed his place of residence and, on top of everything, was on a business trip. Upon returning from a business trip, he sought legal help. The essence of the claims came from the loan agreement. My client (Defendant) borrowed a certain amount of money, paid the money back on time, and received a receipt from the Plaintiff. The receipt was drawn up on December 23, 2014. The deadline for refunding funds was December 31, 2014. December 21, 2021 The Plaintiff sent a statement of claim to the court through the Russian Post Office. The court accepted the application and considered it in March 2021. made a default judgment to recover funds from the Defendant in full. In April 2021 We applied for cancellation of the default judgment, the decision was canceled. And then we noticed that the statement of claim was initially signed not by the plaintiff himself, but by an unidentified person. The application was not accompanied by a power of attorney for the representative; the name of the Plaintiff is written, but the signature is not his. The limitation period ended on December 31, 2021. and from January 1, 2018 should have been missed. The court of first instance left without consideration the Plaintiff's statement of claim, signed by an unidentified person (Part 4 of Article 222 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation). The next day (May 23, 2021), another representative of the Plaintiff submits a statement of claim to the court in the proper form, attaching a power of attorney and the name of the representative. The defendant makes a statement about missing the limitation period, because The plaintiff missed the deadline by 4 months and 23 days. However, the court excludes from the statute of limitations the period during which the statement of claim was in court from the moment of filing - December 21, 2021. until May 22, 2021 and denies the Defendant the application of Art. 196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The interests of the Plaintiff were represented in court by a lawyer during the initial and re-examination of the claim. he had a lawyer's warrant and a lawyer's certificate. My question is quite simple. Could improper behavior of the Plaintiff's representative, expressed in filing and signing a statement of claim for the Plaintiff himself (in fact, an abuse of authority), be a circumstance of interruption of the limitation period or a circumstance of interruption of the limitation period? If so, then how can such behavior of the Plaintiff (not empowering his representative), violating the law, entail any legal consequences in the form of suspension of the statute of limitations? In itself, suspension, interruption, or interruption of the limitation period is a tool for the Plaintiff to preserve the possibility of filing a claim in court in the future, without fear that his claim will be rejected on the basis of missing the limitation period. However, what to do with the situation when the Plaintiff (the Plaintiff’s representative or a generally unknown person) intentionally filed a statement of claim with the goal of “what if it goes wrong” and any legal consequences occur in the form of collection of funds, interruption of the statute of limitations, etc. d. When answering the question why we didn’t refer to the receipt, that’s what the Client wanted. He believes that in this case there is a limitation period and we do not have to prove any other circumstances.

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:

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

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

Time doesn't forgive

This does not mean that the court will necessarily imprison a citizen for very old, albeit terrible, cases. First, the person will appear before the court, answer for his past sins, and then the question of whether or not to release him from punishment will be decided separately.

In normal situations, the statute of limitations automatically applies. For example, you cannot come to a person two years later and accuse him of a minor crime. If someone has committed a serious crime, then after ten years no one will bring charges. They should have caught and punished earlier. But under articles that provide for capital punishment, that is, a life sentence, the question of whether to imprison or not after the statute of limitations has expired is within the exclusive competence of the court.

In practice, a conflict has arisen: what to do when a woman or an elderly man is accused of an old crime? According to the law, life imprisonment does not apply to them. Does this mean that statutes of limitations should be applied automatically?

The Supreme Court recently had to deal with one of these cases. A resident of the Moscow region, N., committed a murder at the beginning of the 2000s. She was wanted for many years, and then the statute of limitations expired and the woman was found. The articles she was charged with included life imprisonment. However, the woman, naturally, was not threatened with an eternal sentence, because she is a woman. Therefore, the lower courts automatically applied the statute of limitations and closed the case.

No matter how much time passes, a person must stand trial for a particularly heinous crime.

Neither the prosecutor's office nor the victims agreed with this decision. “The court also did not take into account the circumstances of N.’s commission of a particularly serious crime for mercenary reasons, the consequences of which was the death of A., and did not take into account the characterizing data about the personality of N., who had previously been prosecuted three times for committing intentional crimes, served a sentence of imprisonment, the conclusions of experts in the forensic psychological examination report are not taken into account, according to which N. is greedy, cynical, calculating, narcissistic, emotionally insensitive to other people, when her feelings are hurt, she shows aggression, easily escalates the conflict, is quick-tempered, touchy, and vindictive “, the prosecutor wrote in his complaint.

The victims, in turn, confirmed that time had not healed their wounds. Moreover, they many times asked law enforcement officers to take measures to search for and detain N., who is to blame now that time has passed?

The Supreme Court, having studied the materials, canceled the decision to terminate the criminal case. And the example itself is included in the review of judicial practice with detailed explanations. As explained in the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court, the commission by a person of a crime for which life imprisonment is provided indicates his high social danger, therefore other rules regarding the statute of limitations apply to him.

“Statutes of limitations have been introduced in most jurisdictions for the reason that an act of crime loses its social relevance after a long period of time, as a result of which criminal liability measures will not have the proper preventive effect and will not ensure adequate social justice,” says Alexander Khurudzhi, head of the Business Security Association. . “However, the most serious, high-profile crimes leave indelible negative consequences in the public’s memory, which cannot be completely neutralized even by a long period of time. Time does not wash away and forgive everything. Therefore, the rule of law in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which does not introduce a statute of limitations for especially serious crimes, is completely justified.”

Time limits for prosecution under articles of fraud

In this case, the criminal deliberately misleads the owner of the property by providing him with false information or false documents. As a result, the victim himself transfers the property, without doubting the legality of these actions. The Criminal Code provides penalties for the following types of fraud:

1. When receiving a loan (Article 159.1). In this case, the citizen receives money from the bank by providing unreliable or false information about himself, and does not intend to return it, that is, he commits theft. Important! If the borrower repays the loan, then receiving a loan using false documents cannot be considered fraud.

Getting into business.

Despite my expressed skepticism, the potential client, who refuses to testify in this criminal case, also refused the services of the previous defense attorney, who persistently offered to repeat the glorious path of the convicted person again in a special manner and connected his next 8 months of life with me. We decided to continue to refuse to testify on episodes related to commercial bribery, since we reasonably believed that the statute of limitations for bringing to justice under Part 5 of Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is 2 years, has expired. It was decided to testify regarding the receipt of a bribe, since the testimony of the accused is, first of all, a means of defense against the prosecution.

Three main defense arguments were chosen:

— The first was to substantiate that the accused was not a person charged with organizational and administrative functions, since, despite the fact that he had some employees subordinate to him, he could not fully exercise the function of managing this work collective. He could not hire or fire subordinates, and could not impose disciplinary sanctions on them. That is, the function of managing people, and therefore the organizational and administrative function, was clearly incomplete, cut off, without its main elements influencing the execution of the manager’s instructions by subordinates, which means it did not exist in the full legal sense. A leader is not always an official. The accused did not possess any other functions included in the concept of organizational and administrative powers, except for the function of managing employees.

Unfortunately, these arguments of ours have never been evaluated or refuted, but it would be interesting to know how promising they are in court.

— The second argument was that, without denying the fact of receiving funds on a bank card from representatives of transport organizations, which were documented, the accused argued that this money was not entirely intended for him. He had to transfer most of them to private third-party drivers of vehicles, whom he, at the request of the payer, hired to transport containers, in cases where for some reason this could not be done by the railway itself. He received a certain fixed amount per month for these services. In legal language, this meant that he carried out his actions, for which he received money, without using his official powers, and was engaged in the provision of services in a civil manner.

These arguments of the accused should have led, at a minimum, to a change in the classification of the charge to a petty bribe and, at a maximum, to the conclusion that there was no corpus delicti.

— The third argument was that such actions of the accused were not obviously illegal and were not related to the suspect’s exercise of organizational and administrative functions, since the accused did not give any instructions to his subordinate employees regarding the exported containers. The removal of containers by private vehicles is not prohibited. There have never been any difficulties or obstacles in the removal of containers, so that it was necessary to organize their unhindered removal. The only obstacle to removal was the lack of payment for these services, but containers were never removed for free.

These arguments, in the opinion of the defense, should also lead to the termination of criminal prosecution, since the acceptance of money by an official for performing actions, although related to the performance of his professional duties, but not related to his organizational and administrative functions, does not constitute a bribery.

In addition, the accused and the defense attorney were simply obliged to discuss the question of why he admitted his guilt in a previous criminal case under similar circumstances. We decided to tell the truth - age, anxiety, high blood pressure, poor health, the desire to quickly end these troubled events and, of course, the persuasion of the participants in the investigation about a lenient sentence and no consequences in the future. Of course, this question was asked and a prepared strong answer was received and recorded in the minutes.

The reaction of the investigation to the desire of the accused to testify and the testimony of the accused themselves indicated that such a turn in the case was unexpected for the investigation. The investigation expected that the accused would continue to refuse to testify, and in this form, and even with the previous verdict, the case would go through the court like clockwork. The interrogations took a very long time, since the investigator constantly tried to include in the protocols his vision of the circumstances of the case and, in fact, his answers to all the questions in the wording he needed. I don’t know if this happened intentionally, or if he got used to his version, but we edited the contents of the protocols several times and for several hours.

Now the investigation had to think about how to refute the accused’s version. And then the investigation went into overdrive, deciding to conduct a wholesale interrogation of all workers directly or indirectly related to the work of the freight station. As the accused continued to work and communicate with witnesses, we received information that the interrogations were being conducted, to put it mildly, incorrectly.

No, unauthorized methods were not used against the witnesses, but their statements in the protocols clearly did not correspond to what the witnesses said. Some simply did not read their testimony, some did not want to argue, some argued but got tired, some succumbed to the investigator’s persuasion that they would not need to confirm their testimony in court. Apparently the investigation hoped that after familiarizing itself with SUCH evidence, the accused would understand that it was useless to resist and agree to have the case tried in court in a special manner, that is, without examining the evidence.

Thus, we approximately knew the essence of the testimony of the witnesses interrogated in the case, but when we got acquainted with them, after the end of the investigation, in accordance with Art. 217 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, we were not just surprised, but shocked. Even those witnesses who, due to their duties, did not obey the accused, stated that he demanded that they draw up documents for the removal of containers, gave them instructions, and they were afraid of losing their jobs and carried out these illegal instructions. The signatures on the documents on behalf of the shipper were carried out in front of them by the accused. The loaders and drivers expressed in detail their opinions about the defendant’s violation of his job description, although they hardly knew or remembered even their own. But managers at various levels went the furthest, testifying about the impact of the defendant’s actions on the image of the state company and that the defendant always lived beyond his means, traveled abroad, and bought expensive things.

But the artifacts collected by the investigation in the case did not impress the defense so much that it gave up; we knew how the investigation recorded the testimony of the accused in the protocol, we guessed how the interrogations of witnesses were conducted, but in this form the defense did not have the moral right to release the case court. Moreover, everything “reported” by the witnesses was completely untrue.

Upon completion of familiarization with the case, the defense logically filed a motion to conduct confrontations with all persons interrogated in the case, including the so-called bribe-payers, since their testimony also showed the “necessary wording.” The petition was motivated in detail with specific references to protocols containing the essence of the contradictions. At the same time, the defense filed a complaint addressed to the supervising prosecutor about psychological pressure on witnesses, misleading them during interrogations, which will be confirmed during confrontations, about which the defense filed a petition.

The investigator rejected the petition, since he considered the contradictions in the testimony not significant, but the prosecutor reported that the lawyer’s complaint was recognized as justified and, in order to eliminate the violations, a demand was made to the head of the investigative agency. True, before this the prosecutor asked the defense attorney why (“what do you want?”) He sent his non-standard appeal to the prosecutor’s office. And then, the defense attorney answered, that when the witnesses in court begin to say something different from what is written in the protocols, the defense will stand up and say: “And we knew about the facts of violation of the law during interrogations and complained to the prosecutor, and asked for confrontations, and……. a violation of the law was recorded at the time during the investigation.”

In general, it became clear that under such circumstances, the investigation cannot be considered complete, especially since the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the need to provide the accused with the opportunity at the pre-trial stages to challenge the testimony of persons by confronting them. The return of the case without approval of the indictment was the first victory of the defense, the result of which was complete certainty about the composition and content of the evidence collected in the case at this stage.

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.

Questions and tricks of the limitation period

May 6, 2021 6:30 p.m.

In what cases does missing a deadline allow the defendant not to bring the claim to trial on the merits?

On May 6, during the FPA RF webinar, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Russian School of Private Law, head of educational programs Lextorium.com, professor and director of the Center for Comparative Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, arbitrator of the ICAC, Arbitration Center at the RSPP, active state Counselor of Justice 2nd class, candidate of legal sciences Andrey Egorov. He gave a lecture on the topic “Limitation of claims: subtleties that are important to know for the representative of the plaintiff or defendant.”

In his speech, Andrei Egorov recalled the main regulations that explain the provisions of the constantly changing Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the limitation period, and also listed the books and publications that he recommends to the webinar listeners.

Innovations of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in relation to the limitation period are specified, as is known, by Federal Law No. 100-FZ of May 7, 2013 “On amendments to subsections 4 and 5 of Section I of Part One and Article 1153 of Part Three of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.”

Also, on September 29, 2015, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 43 “On some issues related to the application of the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the limitation period” (hereinafter referred to as PPWS No. 43). This document consistently continues to explain the provisions of the updated Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which gives reason to once again comprehend the innovations in relation to the limitation period, as well as evaluate how such innovations are interpreted by the Plenum.

It was initially proposed to include explanations from the highest court on the limitation period in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 23, 2015 No. 25 “On the application by courts of certain provisions of Section I of Part 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as PPVS No. 25), but is already in the process work, it was decided to separate them into a separate document. It is also interesting to compare the newly adopted resolution with the previously valid act of interpretation - the joint resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of November 12, 2001 No. 15, the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of November 15, 2001 No. 18 (hereinafter referred to as Resolution No. 15/18). The previous regulation no longer applies. Therefore, it is important to understand in what part the new document retains continuity with the previous act, and which provisions of Resolution No. 15/18 and for what reasons were not accepted.

The problem of limitation of actions is one of the most complex in civil law. This is expressed, in particular, in the fact that the current version provides for a significant number of different limitation periods - both subjective and objective.

As the lecturer noted, it is necessary to establish which claims are subject to the statute of limitations. First of all, the exception should concern claims for recognition. Such claims occur in relation to invalid transactions. Here it is necessary to distinguish between voidable and void transactions. When demanding to recognize a void transaction as invalid, there should be no limitation period. Courts often do not actually apply the limitation period when considering such cases, although it would seem that the Civil Code speaks about it. And this is correct, since there are issues that need to be resolved regardless of how many years have passed since her conclusion.

Responsibility and punishment in administrative law

Responsibility is considered as a compulsory obligation to act as prescribed by current laws, or to refrain from certain actions in the interests of society and the preservation of the established public order.

Otherwise, the violator will be held accountable before the court according to the law (legal liability).

Administrative liability is one of the types of legal liability and is regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses (Federal Law No. 195 2001/30/12, edition 2016/05/12 and 2016/21/12).

Administrative responsibility

Any unlawful intentional or careless act that violates civil rights, morality, established public order, health, ecology, and all types of relations within society is classified as an administrative offense. . Administrative liability arises precisely upon the fact of an offense and leads to restriction of access to certain public goods:

Administrative liability arises precisely upon the fact of an offense and leads to restriction of access to certain public goods:

• narrowing the scope of personal and legal freedom of the offender;
• property and material costs;
• belittlement;
• damage to reputation and restriction of activities.

In some cases, administrative sanctions can be reduced to censure (Administrative Code Art. 2.9). Any citizen over 16 years of age can be held administratively liable (Administrative Code Art. 2.3).

Administrative punishment

Being a reasonable reaction of the state to an offense (violation), punishment serves as a measure of the responsibility of the “troublemaker.”
Punishment, which aims to restore justice and legal balance in society, has not only a punitive function, but also an exemplary and educational one - so that others are discouraged (Administrative Offenses Code Art. 3.1).

When determining the degree of punishment, they rely (CAP Chapter 4) on the nature of the administrative offense and its potential consequences for society, but they must take into account the identity of the offender (the status of the enterprise, if the culprit is a legal entity), his financial situation, mitigating and aggravating circumstances of the case.

Administrative sanctions may be expressed as follows:

• censure (remark, reprimand, warning, etc.);
• imposition of a fine;
• deprivation of a special right (hunting, driving a vehicle, using special equipment) granted earlier, and confiscation of the weapon (object) that resulted in the offense;
• arrest and forced labor (up to 30 days);
• expulsion from the country (non-citizens of the Russian Federation);
• disqualification (removal from position) and freezing of activities.

It is impossible to bring someone to administrative responsibility twice for one offense (Administrative Offences, Article 4.1, paragraph 5).

In case of a combination of violations considered within the framework of one process, the punishment is not summed up, but is assigned under a more stringent article (Administrative Offenses Code, Article 4.4, paragraph 2).

Statute of limitations for economic and tax crimes

Are there many scammers in Russia? The number of criminal cases against them is gradually decreasing. In 2014, more than 160,000 cases were registered, in 2013 – 4,000 more. Fraud with bank cards (SMS messages indicating that the card is blocked) and on the Internet is now flourishing.

Old types of fraud have not disappeared either - winning a prize, scams with apartments and cars, demands for compensation for equipment allegedly broken in a collision on the street. There are many examples. Whatever the fraud, it should be taken to court. And then the question arises of how quickly this needs to be done. You will get the answer here.

Concept and definition Fraud in the Criminal Code means the theft of property belonging to another person or organization, or obtaining rights to such property through abuse of the owner’s trust or deception.

The plot of the case.

A citizen carrying out organizational and administrative functions and being an official of Russian Railways JSC received from representatives of legal entities using the railway services money on a bank card for organizing the process of unhindered removal of containers and for obviously illegal actions to organize the removal of containers from cargo stations.

Until July 13, 2015, officials of joint-stock companies, the controlling stake of which is owned by the state, were subjects of a crime under Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (commercial bribery), therefore, the actions of the accused committed in 2014 were qualified by the investigation under Part 5 of Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And the same actions committed after these changes were made to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, already under Part 3 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (taking a bribe). Thus, it was necessary to defend against charges of two counts of commercial bribery and one count of receiving a bribe. Moreover, the bribe and one of the bribes were carried out by a representative of one legal entity, but respectively before and after the law was changed.