Using the Results of Rosfinmonitoring’s Work in Criminal Proceedings
The Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) currently possesses complete and comprehensive information whose analysis makes it possible to monitor the whole chain of financial transactions, links, agreements through which criminal gains are legalized, transformed into other assets and the capital is then transferred abroad. However, to date the procedure for giving the results of Rosfinmonitoring’s financial investigations the status of evidence in the criminal process has not been legally regulated. Since Rosfinmonitoring is not a law enforcement body, or a subject of operative search and evidence-collection work, the materials of its financial investigations cannot be directly used as evidence in a criminal case and need legalization. As the information in the materials of a financial investigation constitutes bank secrecy, a direct attempt to use it as proof could be dismissed by the court as inadmissible evidence because it was obtained by law enforcement bodies without a court sanction. In order to give the status of admissible evidence to the information obtained during a financial investigation of the deposits and accounts of the persons involved, the investigator, with the agreement of the head of the investigation agency, or an inquiry officer, with the agreement of the prosecutor, should petition the court about the initiation of investigatory actions according to the procedure stated in Art. 165 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, and attach all the documents obtained from credit organizations as a result of the court’s ruling to the materials of the criminal case. The authors present a comparative analysis of financial and preliminary investigations, describe the specifics of using the materials of financial investigations in criminal proceedings and the procedure of Rosfinmonitoring’s cooperation with law enforcement bodies with the goal of investigating and solving crimes.