Problems of Establishing Malfeasance in Bankruptcy

The elements of a crime provided for in Part 1, 2, Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation include a crime situation as a feature of the objective side, i.e. the presence of signs of bankruptcy, the exact establishment of the moment of occurrence of which allows us to clearly determine the time limits of the criminal law prohibition in relation to acts under Part 1, 2 of Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, the understanding of the situation of illegal actions in bankruptcy in special literature and judicial practice is based on a literal, and not substantive, understanding of the provisions of the legislation on insolvency, to which the dispositions of the above offenses are referred. In this regard, when classifying the offense under Part 1, 2, Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, criminologists propose to be guided in fact by procedural presumptions of insolvency and the grounds for initiating a case on the debtor’s insolvency. Current judicial practice follows the same path. The stated understanding is not only methodologically incorrect, but also significantly reduces the criminal law potential of the mentioned norms of criminal law by narrowing the scope of their action. In turn, the paper pays attention to the substantive and legal grounds for stating that the debtor has signs of bankruptcy, which should be taken into account when classifying the deed as illegal actions in bankruptcy. The authors formulates his own position on the question of determining the moment of the emergence of the situation of the investigated crimes.