Bribery is one of the most common crimes in modern society. It is necessary to distinguish between two main categories of bribe takers: those who try to give a bribe for the purpose of obtaining personal gain and those who are engaged in extorting a bribe, promising to solve the problem.
To combat this type of criminal acts, Article 290 and Article 291 of the Criminal Code of Russia have been introduced and are in force in the Russian Federation, providing for criminal liability of varying severity. Specifically, a demand for a bribe with a threat of causing damage by a person holding a position in government agencies is qualified under clause 5 of Article 290.
Definition of extortion of a bribe in the Criminal Code of Russia
The requirement to transfer property assets, accompanied by the threat of inaction or failure to provide the necessary assistance to a person inclined to give a bribe to a responsible official, is extortion under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the period for which is provided in accordance with the severity of the crime committed.
For example, the head of the personnel department demanded a bribe from a person applying for a job for registration; or a university teacher during a session extorts a certain amount of money from a student for help in passing an exam, etc.
Such actions usually occur in two forms:
Open requirement
A citizen is directly required to pay for taking actions or inaction in relation to him (the HR department extorts a bribe for applying for a job).
Veiled demand
They do not directly extort a bribe or use open threats. Nevertheless, conditions are created for a person to force him to give a bribe. For example, a boss creates conditions that prevent an employee from performing his duties.
Legal concept of bribery
A bribe is usually understood as all forms of incentives for an official in exchange for the performance of functions within the framework of his official position. This applies to the transfer of money, material assets, the provision of services, encouragement of close relatives of an official, as well as the transfer of expensive gifts. For its part, the recipient of the valuables, using his powers, makes biased decisions and in every possible way contributes to satisfying the interests of the dishonest client.
Legal liability for giving a bribe in the Russian Federation is provided not only for the actual receipt of a benefit, but also for the offer or demand for it.
Ways in which bribes are extorted
In most situations, they don’t talk specifically about a bribe out loud, but you can guess about its demand based on the following signs:
- the official makes hints about receiving a certain amount for solving the problem;
- the official, in response to a request, says that he does not have such powers or cannot do so, while with facial expressions or gestures he shows that a decision is possible with appropriate payment for his services;
- the amount of money extorted is not announced, but is written on paper, typed on a calculator or on a smartphone screen.
Additional nuances
During the investigation of such crimes, difficulties arise in determining the following situations:
- Only officials can be held liable for a bribe. But can a professor be classified as an official or will sanctions apply only to representatives of the dean’s office who combine leadership and teaching activities?
- It happens that a student gave money to the teacher, but did not receive the desired grade. On the part of the student, providing a monetary reward will be considered as giving a bribe. Under what article the teacher should be held accountable and whether there will be sanctions at all depends on the circumstances of the case.
How to prove and act in cases where you are asked to give a bribe
To avoid becoming an accomplice of an extortionist, a person from whom a bribe is demanded should do the following:
- do not agree to the persuasion of the extortionist or his intermediary;
- record the fact of extortion on video or recorder;
- write a statement, rather than call on your smartphone, to law enforcement agencies. You can also fill out an application electronically on the law enforcement agency website. Contacting law enforcement in person or via the Internet will significantly speed up the solution to the problem of extortion.
If the extortionist is an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, you should contact the federal security service. Submitting an application to law enforcement agencies removes suspicions of bribery or complicity in it.
How to avoid punishment
The legislation provides for several conditions under which the guilty person will be released from future legal liability. These include voluntary reporting of a crime to the police. The second circumstance is that the recipient of the material benefit himself extorted gratitude and created the conditions for receiving it. The third factor is the active cooperation of the police in the investigation of bribery crimes.
Thus, two parties are to blame for the bribe. Therefore, both participants will be held accountable. And if the person transferring the reward can be exempt from legal liability, then the recipient of the valuables will be punished, regardless of cooperation in the investigation of the offense.
Extortion of a bribe: differences from ordinary extortion
This concept involves the transfer of the required amount of money to a citizen for whom it was not intended. For example, transferring a bribe to an intermediary, who in fact is him, that is, he took the money and appropriated it without transferring it to the official for whom it was intended
These criminal acts are classified under Article 291.1, which establishes liability for mediation in giving or receiving a bribe, and under Article 159, which establishes liability for fraudulent actions.
In addition, extortion of a bribe refers to this type of criminal act when the person demanding the bribe did not complete the extortion and in fact did not receive the bribe.
In the Criminal Code, receiving and giving a bribe is qualified by Article 290, but the concept of extortion of money and other things is not defined in the Criminal Code. It is often confused with ordinary extortion, qualified by Article 163, but these are different types of criminal acts.
- Extortion involves demanding the transfer of property or rights to it, while extorting a bribe is considered a property crime.
- In the first case, every capable citizen can be a criminal; in the second, the object can be any official (an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a university teacher, a government employee holding a responsible position, etc.).
- When extorting a bribe, the main feature is the demand of the responsible official to transfer money or other property values to him in order to resolve the issue of the citizen giving the bribe. According to the Criminal Code, the main feature of extortion of money and other things is coercion to transfer property values or rights to it through the threat of causing damage to the health, life or property of the victim.
- In the first case, the demand is accompanied by the use or threat of violence, in contrast to the second, when there is no threat of violence.
Bribes to a psychiatrist
A special crime is giving a bribe to a psychiatrist, the purpose of this offense may be:
- declaring the bribe-giver insane in order to avoid criminal punishment;
- recognition of a conscript as limitedly fit for military service;
- issuing prescriptions for psychotropic or narcotic drugs.
Many criminals who have committed serious crimes are sent for examination by a commission of psychiatrists - if the criminal is found insane, then a long prison sentence can be replaced by 1-2 years of compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
Mental illness is one of the most common grounds for declaring conscripts unfit for military service in peacetime , and to make fictitious diagnoses, bribes are given to psychiatrists participating in the commission who make decisions about assigning a conscript a category of fitness for military service.
In large cities, the purpose of giving a bribe to a psychiatrist may be to falsely recognize an individual as mentally ill and forcibly detain him in the hospital - here the bribe givers are the victim’s relatives, intending to appropriate her living space.
How is the fact of a bribe proven?
Any crime must be proven; this is done using the materials of the criminal case. If you are wondering how to prove a bribe, the information below will be useful.
First of all, the investigation must provide official evidence that the accused is an official according to legal norms. In order to determine the scope of his rights and obligations, a request is sent to his place of work. In response, the representative of law enforcement agencies must be provided with all the necessary documentation defining the powers of the subject. It is taken into account that they must be relevant at the time the response to the request is generated. Otherwise, the fact of illegal acquisition of property assets will not be proven.
As for the direct receipt of a bribe, materials that were obtained during operational search work can be used as evidence, namely:
- results of operational experiments;
- wiretapping data;
- video recordings.
Subject to legal compliance when received, all materials are considered valid. It is worth noting that wiretapping a citizen without the permission of the prosecutor is prohibited by law.
When the evidence base has been collected, the investigation moves on to “consolidate” the result, this is done through a personal search of the accused, his detention, as well as an inspection of the place where the crime was committed. The protocol must reflect information about the presence of material assets during the search, which became the subject of the bribe.
Consultation with a lawyer on bribes
If you are accused of giving a bribe under Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - do not hesitate, but rather contact a lawyer for preliminary advice. The help of our specialists on the site is completely free; you can ask them a question about the nuances of a bribery charge at any time. Ask a criminal lawyer a question for free right now!
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Prohibited methods for detecting criminal activity
There was a time when law enforcement agencies practiced such operational experiments as staging a bribe to a suspect. But! This is against the law. This is because the experiment does not allow stopping the crime, but, on the contrary, provokes the official to break the law again, which will further aggravate the situation. Such actions on the part of law enforcement officers contradict the principles of legality and justice.
Another important point is that it is necessary to prove the malicious intent of the person accused of corruption, namely, that he took the money of his own free will. As practice shows, this is the most difficult thing to do, because no one wants to testify against themselves. But there is another way to prove the consciousness of the crime. For these purposes, the following facts may be used, which must be obtained legally. To be more precise, this is:
- results of operational search activities;
- testimony of victims, witnesses in the case;
- audio recordings from auditions;
- recordings of investigative dramatizations.
If you or someone you know is faced with a similar situation, you should definitely contact a lawyer. With its help, it will be possible to collect the maximum amount of evidence. The defense lawyer will prepare you for the court hearing and tell you what to say. Even if you are in isolation, he will still visit you frequently.
The size of the bribe is the main criterion influencing the severity of the punishment
The legislation of the Russian Federation does not contain any instructions regarding what size of a bribe should be considered minimal, i.e. any remuneration given to an official in monetary units (securities and other goods of financial value) will be considered a bribe. Criminal prosecution can be terminated if the investigation or the court considers that the amount of the bribe is very insignificant (no more than 500 rubles), but in practice such cases are extremely rare.
A bribe the amount of which exceeds 25 thousand rubles is considered by Russian legislation as significant, but if the amount exceeds 150 thousand rubles, then we are talking about a large amount.
With other material values, the situation is somewhat different. Article 575 of the Civil Code states that officials are prohibited from accepting gifts of material assets, with the exception of gifts that do not represent significant material value. Such gifts mean items whose value does not exceed 3 thousand rubles.
