Now, not only property, but also money in bank accounts which do not match the official income of officials, can be taken as state revenue. The President Vladimir Putin signed the law after almost three years of development and adoption.
It's not clear from the text who exactly the Prosecutor General’s Office will check for the correspondence of savings and earnings. It seems the new rule, like the law since 2012 on seizing apartments, houses and cars bought with unconfirmed income, will apply only to those under criminal prosecution.
Right to check
March 6 President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the transfer of funds from the bank accounts of officials, the origin of which they could not prove, to state revenue. All civil servants who are required to report their income, as well as members of their families, fall under the new rule. The document amends the laws “On Combating Corruption” and “On Banks and Banking Activity”.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is responsible for checking officials, while credit institutions will be required to provide Igor Krasnov and his subordinates with information on accounts, deposits and operations of civil servants. Checks are initiated if an amount exceeding the official income for 3 years is found in the accounts of officials, their spouses and minor children. Who will make this discovery is not explicitly stated in the law.
During the audit, the official will have the opportunity to prove the legality of the funds, and if their arguments do not persuade the supervisory authority, prosecutors have the right to go to court to confiscate unproven funds to the state. The minimum amount subject to recovery is 10 thousand rubles.
Long way
The deputies of the lower house of parliament, who usually pass laws quickly, took their time in this case. The government submitted the initiative to the State Duma in March 2021, and it was finally adopted in the third reading almost a year later, on February 16, 2022.
However, the project was with the executive authorities for almost two years – 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 engage in the development of the initiative to prioritize its consideration in the spring of 2020. But in the end, the initiative, developed in line with one of the points of 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
Despite the lack of the aforementioned law, prosecutors managed to seize the assets of corrupt officials for the state. They relied on an expanded interpretation of the current legislation, which allows the collection of real estate and vehicles acquired with questionable 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 agreements to sell his shares and then move the profits to offshore companies. These actions of the billionaire were considered illegal business activities, and the profits were seen as unlawful income.
The former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko and his relatives managed to confiscate money, even though it wasn't in bank accounts, but in cash. The Prosecutor General’s Office's request for the total amount of about 9 billion rubles was approved by the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow in December 2017. Apart from apartments and cars, the state obtained 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 mentioned in the claim 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 made by the Golovinsky Court of Moscow in November 2019.
In 2016, the ex-governor of the Sakhalin Region also lost a large sum Alexander Khoroshavin. The city court of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk accepted the request to confiscate in favor of the state more than 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 was 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 provides regular reports on them. 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.
