Fraud in the Field of Entrepreneurship: Theory, Practice, Problems

The authors analyzed the provisions of Part 5–7 of the Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for compliance with the criminal law principles of justice and equality before the law. The signs by which it is necessary to distinguish the considered type of fraud from civil tort and related offenses are given. Particular attention is paid to the subject of the crime in question and the victim, which can only be individual entrepreneurs and representatives of commercial organizations. Among related crimes, simple fraud (parts 1–4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), fraud in the field of lending (Art. 1591) and abuse of power (Art. 201) are highlighted. It is concluded that it is necessary to establish, first of all, the subjective signs of crimes, which to a greater extent allow to distinguish the adjacent elements of the indicated crimes from each other.