Titov announced an increase in the number of criminal cases against entrepreneurs

In Russia, the number of criminal cases against entrepreneurs has increased, business ombudsman Boris Titov told reporters, citing official statistics. transmits Interfax.

“The number of criminal cases under economic and fraud charges in Russia continues to grow. Official statistics from the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the first half of 2023 show a significant increase in “economic” crimes compared to the same period in 2022,” he said.

During this period, investigators had about 352,000 cases under articles of fraud, crimes in the field of economic activity, as well as causing property damage through deception or breach of trust. This is 15% more than in the first half of 2022, Titov noted. And the number of registered cases in January-June exceeded last year’s result by 21%.

At the same time, Titov noted that the regulatory guillotine has sharply reduced the number of inspections, and there are fewer administrative cases, unlike criminal ones, against businesses.

The Ombudsman also pointed to an increase in the number of suspended criminal cases. For the article on fraud, for example, the increase was 23%. “In practice, this means that a case is initiated based on the commission of a crime by unidentified persons from among the leaders of the organization. Even if there is only one such leader, for some reason it turns out to be very difficult for investigators to identify him. At the same time, interim measures are often implemented, property, organization documents, etc. are confiscated,” he noted.

How wrote In the spring of Vedomosti, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) proposed decriminalizing 10 economic articles in the Criminal Code, as well as increasing the thresholds for large and especially large amounts of damage. The package of measures was sent to the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Duma, as well as to business associations.

Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government, together with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to develop legislative amendments that would exempt entrepreneurs from administrative fines by police officers. This was mentioned in the list of instructions following the results of SPIEF 2023, Vedomosti wrote.

Titov then noted that this is “one of those initiatives that can have an impact on business right here and now, without a delayed effect.” According to him, in recent years, thanks to administrative reform, “the number of inspections has decreased very significantly,” but there have been no problems in terms of environmental degradation or the risk of poisoning people, as reflected in the statistics.