Fraud in the field of entrepreneurship in the wording 2016: was another attempt of the legislator successful?
The article analyzes changes in the norms on fraud of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation connected with the adoption of two Federal laws: №323-FZ "On amendments to the Criminal code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal procedural code of the Russian Federation on improving of the grounds and order of exemption from criminal liability" and №325-FZ "On amendments to the Criminal code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal procedural code of the Russian Federation" on 3 July 2016. Focusing on the new provisions of article 159 of the Criminal code on fraud in the field of entrepreneurship, the author evaluates whether the legislator succeed correcting the shortcomings of the relevant criminal prohibitions previously identified by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. As a result, the conclusion is disappointing: notwithstanding critical remarks made in the process of adoption of the draft law, including those from the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the changes introduced in the Criminal code have not solved previously identified problems. In the author’s opinion, initially incorrect differentiation of liability on fraud depending on the sphere of crime was compounded by the establishment of significantly different signs of large, very large and extra-large size of the stolen.