Payment has been made: fines for economic cases will increase 1.5-5 times

Fines for a number of economic crimes will increase by one and a half times or more — such a bill was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, Izvestia found out. Depending on the amount of damage caused, the penalty for fraud will increase to 1.5 million rubles, for using someone else's trademark — up to 2.5 million, and for illegal banking activities — up to 5 million rubles. The amendments will also affect articles on illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion and copyright infringement. The inflationary process requires reviewing the size of sanctions — the amount of fines should be adequate to the amount of damage, experts said. How the norms will work is in the Izvestia article.

How much will the fines increase?

In Russia, penalties for a number of economic crimes may be increased — fines, in particular, for fraud in the framework of business activities and tax evasion will increase by one and a half times. Such amendments to the Criminal Code were developed by the Ministry of Justice, and the government commission on legislative activity approved them on November 10. This was reported to Izvestia by sources in the Cabinet of Ministers.

The need to raise the threshold of sanctions is related to inflationary processes, Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association, told Izvestia.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Yulia Mayorova

"The punishment should be adequate to the actual cost of the damage," he said. — For example, for fraud related to the deliberate non-fulfillment of contractual obligations in business activities, it is proposed to increase the maximum fine to 1.5 million rubles.

Currently, the maximum threshold for sanctions under this article is 1 million rubles.

It is planned to raise fines by one and a half times for causing property damage by deception, illegal entrepreneurship, illegal banking, and tax evasion, Vladimir Gruzdev noted.

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However, for a number of crimes, the fine will increase much more. Thus, for using someone else's trademark and tax evasion by an organization, its amount will increase 2.5 times — from 1 million to 2.5 million rubles. And for illegal banking activities — five times: from 1 million rubles to 5 million.

In the spring of 2024, the amount of large and especially large damage from a number of economic crimes was increased, taking into account the inflation rate, according to the explanatory note. In addition, in June last year, similar changes were made to the articles "Violation of copyright and related rights" and "Causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust."

Photo: Global Look Press

"The analysis of statistical data from the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court indicates the widespread demand for a fine, which is imposed as the main punishment for the commission of these crimes," the document says.

So, from 2021 to 2023, 3.1 thousand people in Russia were sentenced for economic crimes, while more than half of the defendants received a fine as the main punishment. They were most often convicted of illegal trademark use and tax evasion.

Now the fines imposed have begun to approach the upper threshold more often if they are used as the main punishment, the authors of the document note.

How will the amendments affect court decisions

The proposal to increase fines for certain economic crimes is indeed consonant with the changed economic situation — the current size no longer solves the problem of prevention so effectively, says Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department of the analytical agency VMT Consult.

"We are talking about adjusting sanctions under articles where a fine is the main alternative to imprisonment," the expert noted.

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An increase in fines may help strengthen law and order in the field of business, as the punishment will again become tangible for both large business entities and officials who abuse their position.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

— However, the initiative has potential risks, — said Sofya Lukinova. — An increase in sanctions can increase pressure on small and medium-sized businesses, especially in cases where crimes are committed not out of mercenary motives, but out of negligence or due to errors in reporting.

She added that the tendency to impose fines instead of actual prison terms is an indicator of the humanization of the system. But it was precisely in this trend that civil lawyer Alla Georgieva saw the danger.

— For example, scammers who cheat grandmothers should still be imprisoned, and not just fined, — she believes.

At the same time, Sofya Lukinova called for the establishment of unified approaches to determining the amount of damage and taking into account mitigating circumstances — otherwise, the fine may be excessive and lead to the closure of enterprises.