Fines for fortune-tellers, magicians and psychics want to increase to 1 million rubles

It is proposed to introduce a separate punishment for fortune-tellers, magicians and psychics under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud"). Alexei Didenko, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Local Self-Governance, has appealed to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev with a request to add a new crime to it. "Izvestia" familiarized with the document.

The document reports that recently in the Russian Federation there is a steady negative trend associated with the growing number of crimes committed under the guise of providing paid services of esoteric nature.

"We are talking about such as fortune-telling, astrological counseling, conducting rituals to remove spoilage, hex, "purification", etc. Attackers systematically mislead Russians in order to seize their money. In this case, the special vulnerability to such forms of deception demonstrate the elderly and citizens who are in an emotionally unstable state", - stated in the appeal of the Deputy.

He noted that such crimes, as a rule, are qualified under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. However, the current version of the article does not take into account the peculiarities of illegal schemes based on the market of such services.

In this regard, the deputy proposes to supplement this article with a new norm of punishment for fraudulent actions committed under the guise of providing esoteric services on a commercial basis and to establish a higher fine for this than for simple fraud.

"The volume of the market of esoteric services in Russia, according to various estimates, amounts to billions of rubles, and fraudsters are actively operating in it. At the same time, the penalties for these crimes, in my opinion, are not quite sufficient. Thus, if the amount of damage to the victim is less than 4.5 million rubles, the perpetrator only faces a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles. If the amount of damage is higher, the fine will be up to Br500 thousand. In this regard, I propose to introduce a separate article in the Criminal Code for such actions with a penalty of Br500 thousand to Br1 million," explained the deputy.

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The card will not lie: fines for fortune-tellers want to increase to a million rubles