Business Ombudsman Boris Titov — about the problems of relations between business and law enforcement
The last three years, inexorable statistics shows the constant deterioration of the situation with the criminal prosecution of businessmen. In his message Vladimir Putin pointed to the inadmissibility of the situation when the court comes to the minimum percentage of cases brought against entrepreneurs — “oppressively, robbed and then released.” However, the situation has not improved, but worsened. Militiamen have preferred to skip this direct appeal to the President to stay on deaf ears.
Fresh data on the number of criminal cases under the business articles in 2015 reasons for optimism do not give. Their number is returned to the peak values of 2010. Then he was charged with 287 thousand criminal cases on “business articles, and for 2015, 234 thousand For the infamous 159 article of the criminal code the number of prosecutions increased by 20% to 70% of all cases. The number of cases referred to the court, not increased, i.e. the trend is described by the President, not only does not decrease, but increases.
Life has shown that the decision to return to investigators the right to bring proceedings under tax articles of the criminal code without providing the IRS was a mistake. All concerns of business on this occasion was justified. In 2015, the number of cases for 198-and 199-th articles of the criminal code of the Russian Federation increased by 62%, while the number of prisoners has only increased by 2% and accounts for only 8% of all prosecutions.
Of particular concern is the growing number of people, prisoners in jail on “entrepreneurship” articles. Last year there was 10% more. While the number of entrepreneurs who have received house arrest, jumped nearly two-fold (85%).
Cases, when, in disregard of article 108 of the code, entrepreneurs enter into pre-trial detention on absurd charges often enough. This and R. Gilfanov, and Valery Grachev, and Guruji, one of the leaders of ASI! In the same list the names of Gamz, Bricklayer, Chrysina, Koropskogo, ul. And including Polonsky, who was no good entrepreneur, but intent to deceive the shareholders had. Not to mention the fact that the transaction is not Polonsky and the other company, and they are executed.
In 2016, was beaten a sad record of a person staying in custody until the court decision. On March 10, was six years (!) as in the Rostov region under investigation, and then by the court in the detention center is an innovative entrepreneur Yuri Osipenko (he released domestic versions of led lamps). And the end of the process is not visible. But, according to experts of the centre “Business against corruption”, examination shows his innocence.
A very smelly story happened in the Tver region. There under house arrest was planted Andrew Rocko who built the bridge across the Volga. The bridge was commissioned and is successfully operating for the third year. However, the attempt of the entrepreneur to achieve full payment of the contract (the government owed him 120 million) turned into a criminal case. This despite the fact that Rocko won all courts up to the Supreme. It seems that in a tough economic crisis, some officials are beginning to perceive the criminal prosecution on trumped-up reasons as a way to solve the economic dispute in their favor and not paid for with the entrepreneur. Sadly, there are great concerns that this practice will grow.
Institute of the business Ombudsman works in each of the cases coming to us, and the successes we have. In the list of those whom we have helped with illegal criminal prosecution, more than 45 entrepreneurs. Little? Possible. But we have to deal with every case individually. Each of our success in cases involving the illegal criminal prosecution, is achieved by months of labour, and the number is only growing. Without systemic solutions to move the situation from a dead point will not succeed.
Any measures to improve the business climate will not work, if the business does not feel secure.
Need to get a special article in the criminal code for violations in the entrepreneurial sphere. Abolished the famous article 159.4 (“Fraud in the sphere of entrepreneurial activities”), we proposed to Supplement the criminal code a new article 179.1 (“Deliberate non-performance of property Treaty obligations in the sphere of entrepreneurial activity”), which would imply a smaller penalty of up to five years in prison versus 10 years.
It is necessary to increase the threshold of damage in the economic composition of the criminal code — since the damage is disproportionate to the degree of punishment, is offered in a five-fold increase in the amounts recognized in large and very large size.
It is very important that entrepreneurs, and not only them, were not detained at the investigation stage. We propose to grant the Prosecutor the right to refuse arrest, which should automatically lead to the application of another measure of restraint, similarly to the right of the Prosecutor to drop the charges, which leads to the cessation of criminal prosecution.
It is important to allow a large economic courts consider cases to a jury, perhaps in a truncated part.
All these proposals were repeatedly voiced by us and sent to a variety of instances. Last time they were seen on the new working group at the President on monitoring and analysis of law enforcement practice in the sphere of entrepreneurship. At least two of our ideas (about raising thresholds and a new article on the breach of contract) has received the support head of the head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov.
We are committed to making these innovations.
