2024-07-13 08:06:02
The Department of Crimes Against Economic Activities of the General Prosecutor’s Office of RA studied the 2021 the criminal process in cases of crimes of economic nature committed in the republic during
It was found that in 2021 during this period, 1114 criminal cases of the mentioned nature were initiated, which is 1.31 times or 270 more than in 2020. Last year, 33 criminal cases related to crimes against economic activity were sent to the court, with which 47 persons were brought to trial, almost as many as in 2020. during.
The total damage caused to the state by only prepared and completed material, examined and completed criminal cases, as well as criminal cases examined and completed in court, amounted to about 22.3 billion AMD, or 2020. (around 12 billion drams) compared to 85% more. The rate of recovery of damage caused to the state in the framework of criminal cases has also increased significantly. 2021 During this period, 5.6 billion AMD were recovered, compared to 1.9 billion AMD in 2020, or about 2.8 times more.
The increase of cases with certain types of crimes of an economic nature, as well as the cases examined in the proceedings, is due to several circumstances. First, as a result of the implementation of the specific instructions given by the RA Prosecutor General’s Office in relation to the initiatives of the RA SRC, as well as the separate, more problematic areas of economic activity, the cases of non-fulfilment of tax obligations, deliberate bankruptcy, and illegal entrepreneurship by the RA SRC divisions have significantly increased.
In particular, on the instructions given by the Department of Crimes Against Economic Activity of the RA General Prosecutor’s Office, investigations were carried out in the RA SRC by show business representatives who are considered residents of RA without registration in the tax authorities, i.e. without paying taxes, carrying out entrepreneurial activities, as well as construction, gasoline , in the fields of import and sale of diesel fuel. As a result of them, criminal offenses of a tax nature were discovered, which received a criminal legal process.
In addition, through the investigation of criminal cases, cases of violations of the conditions necessary for the application of the privilege of exempting imported technological equipment, their opening and supplementing parts, raw materials and materials from customs duty within the framework of the investment program implemented in separate priority areas, when the goods imported into the territory of the Republic of Armenia on preferential terms by the decisions of the Government of the Republic of Armenia have not served their intended purpose. Taking into account that such privileges were granted to many businessmen, the Department of Investigation and Operational Intelligence of the RA SRC was instructed to regularly carry out measures to find out the circumstances of their intended use by the latter and to provide information to the RA Prosecutor General’s Office about violations. Based on practical issues, in 2021 a corresponding petition with specific recommendations for changes in relevant legal regulations was submitted to the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia. As a result, these recommendations were included in the RA government’s decision.
In addition, recently, banks and credit organizations have become more proactive in reporting counterfeit money to law enforcement agencies and cooperating with them. First of all, this was facilitated by the fact that work was carried out with organizations operating in the field of banking or credit and payment systems in the direction of introducing new equipment for detecting fake money, increasing the vigilance of employees. In addition, the discussion on forms of cooperation in the fight against crimes of this nature, to inform the RA law enforcement agencies about such cases in the framework of the fight against counterfeit money, organized last year in the RA General Prosecutor’s Office with the participation of representatives of the RA Central Bank and banks.
In the context of the criminal policy adopted by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Armenia, in criminal cases in which there was reasonable suspicion of money laundering, the duty of the suspects or the accused to submit a declaration, in case of being such an entity, the examination of their declarations and the existence of sufficient factual circumstances are made subject to mandatory investigation by the prosecutors’ instructions. circumstances of their illegal enrichment.
As a result of the investigation of the legality of the examinations carried out in the investigative department of the RA SRC, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the RA also raised practical issues related to the duration of the appointed examinations, seizure of property, appeals of the appointed tax inspections and other issues. As a result of them, specific instructions and recommendations were given to the body implementing the proceedings both through the discussions of specific criminal cases and through a number of reports. In particular, in 2021 38 written instructions were given to the investigators by the prosecutors conducting trial management and prosecutorial supervision of the criminal cases under investigation, which is twice as much as in 2020. compared to 23 orders to perform operational intelligence operations were given to the RA Police units and SRC OS Department.
269 reports were submitted in order to eliminate the violations and shortcomings committed during the investigation of criminal cases of the specified nature, as well as to perform the necessary investigative and judicial actions in the cases.