Now, not only property but also money in bank accounts that do not match the official income of officials can be turned over to the state. President Vladimir Putin signed the corresponding law after almost three years of development and adoption.
However, it's unclear from the text whom exactly the Prosecutor General’s Office will inspect for the matching of savings and earnings. It seems that the new rule, like the law in effect since 2012 on the confiscation of properties purchased with unconfirmed income, will only apply to those facing criminal charges.
Right to check
On March 6, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law enabling the transfer of funds from officials' bank accounts, the source of which they couldn't prove, to state revenue. This applies to all public servants who must report their income, as well as their family members. The document modifies the laws “On Combating Corruption” and “On Banks and Banking Activity”.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is responsible for inspecting officials, while financial institutions are required to provide information about accounts, deposits, and transactions of public servants to Igor Krasnov and some of his subordinates. Inspections are set if accounts of officials, their spouses, and underage children show an amount exceeding the official income for 3 years. The law does not directly state who will make this discovery.
During the inspection, officials have the right to prove the legality of the funds' origin. If their arguments fail to convince the supervisory authority, prosecutors can go to court to claim the confiscation of unverified funds to the state. The minimum amount of recovery of unjustified income is 10 thousand rubles.
Long way
Members of the lower house of parliament, who are known for passing laws quickly, for some reason did not rush in this case. The government submitted the initiative to the State Duma in March 2021, and it was adopted almost a year later, on February 16, 2022.
However, the project was in the executive authorities for almost two years as the Ministry of Justice announced its development in the summer of 2019. Then it was approved by the speaker of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin. He instructed the relevant committee of the lower house of parliament to get involved in the development of the initiative to prioritize its consideration in spring 2020. Eventually, the initiative, developed in line with a point in the National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2018-2020, gained the right to be implemented during the next National Plan for 2021-2024.
money is illegal
However, the absence of the mentioned law didn't stop prosecutors from seizing funds of corrupt officials for the state. They lacked an expanded interpretation of the norm in the current legislation, allowing the collection of real estate and vehicles acquired with suspicious income.
So, in October 2020, the Gagarinsky Court of Moscow granted the request of the supervisory authority to take away 32.5 billion rubles Former Minister for Open Government Mikhail Abyzov. The Prosecutor General’s Office discovered that in 2018, Abyzov, who at that time held a position in the government, made deals to sell his shares and then moved the profits to offshore companies. These actions of the billionaire were considered illegal business activities, and the profits – as illegal income.
Successfully confiscated money from the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko and his relatives, even though it was not money in the accounts, but cash. The request of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the total amount of around 9 billion rubles The Nikulinsky Court of Moscow granted in December 2017. Along with apartments and cars, the state received 8.5 billion rublesfound in the apartment of the sister of the ex-head of the “T” department of the GUEBiPK.
Cash, along with movable and immovable property, was included in the statement of claim of Igor Krasnov’s department against another billionaire security official – the former head of the 2nd department of the Office of the FSB of Russia Kirill Cherkalin. The decision to confiscate apartments, country houses, land plots belonging to him and his relatives, as well as $72.75 million, €8.5 million, £4,000 and 810 million rublesfound in the possession of the former Chekist and members of his family during searches, was accepted in November 2019 by the Golovinsky Court of Moscow.
In 2016, the ex-governor of the Sakhalin Region also lost a large sum Alexander Khoroshavin. The city court of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk granted the request for confiscation in favor of the state of over RUB 280m, $6m, CHF 388k, €727,570 and £217,700, as well as apartments in Moscow, plots on Rublyovka, luxury cars, jewelry and watches. The total amount of nationalized property amounted to 1.1 billion rubles.
Criminal billions
If we talk about successes in the field of seizing assets acquired by unrighteous means in accordance with the norms of legislation in force since 2012, then Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov reports on them regularly. So, in the fall of 2020, he stated that over the eight years of applying this rule, property was confiscated from officials for 34 billion rubles.
Then the pace began to pick up. So, in 2020, according to the Prosecutor General, supervisors, as part of compensation for harm from corruption, filed claims against 84 billion rubles, 74 billion related to assets, the legality of the acquisition of which officials could not confirm.
The final results of last year have not yet been summed up, but in the fall, at the government hour in the State Duma, the Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov named a number 52 billion rubles. According to him, this is the total 3 thousand claims on the seizure of funds from corrupt officials for the first three quarters of last year, and almost 35 billion of them accounted for the confiscation of property, which officials acquired with unconfirmed income.
However, the vast majority of the confiscated billions is the property of civil servants, against whom criminal cases were initiated with corruption.
So, the largest last year was the lawsuit against the ex-deputy of the State Duma Sergei Petrov and the car dealer Rolf founded by him. Initially, prosecutors filed demands for 12.85 billionbut then increased them before 19.4 billion rubles. According to the supervisory authority, Petrov, being a parliamentarian, allegedly continued to manage Rolf and receive income from his activities, although the company was formally registered with his son.
Also in 2021, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the recovery of the former senator’s property to the state Rauf Arashukovahis father Raulya Arashukova and other members of their family to the amount of almost 1.5 billion rubles. The supervision considered that the Arashukov clan did not have legal income for the purchase of 75 real estate objects, 14 motor vehicles and other luxury goods.
As for the billions in assets of acting officials, which were reported by investigative journalists, either no checks are carried out on them, or there are no reasons for prosecutorial response measures.
