The Board approved the introduction of criminal liability for droppers

Article 187 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the illegal circulation of funds of payments will be supplemented with new types of crimes. Such amendments were approved on April 28 by the government commission on legislative activity, sources in the government told Izvestia on April 28. The document is available to the editorial staff.

Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia (AYUR), clarified that it is proposed to establish criminal liability for "droppers" — persons who transfer their payment cards and other electronic means of payment to other persons for transactions.

"Thus, the transfer of the electronic means of payment itself (or access to it), as well as the implementation of illegal transactions on the instructions or in the interests of another person, will be recognized as a criminal act," he said.

Vladimir Gruzdev added that it is also proposed to establish criminal liability for persons who unlawfully use other people's electronic means of payment. Both actions to carry out illegal transactions and the acquisition of such electronic means of payment for the purpose of making transfers will be considered criminal.

"Self-serving intermediary actions to gain access to means of payment for the purpose of their subsequent transfer to third parties also constitute a criminal offense. In addition, an exemption from criminal liability is established for persons who have committed a crime for the first time by providing access to their means of payment," explained the Chairman of the Board of the AYR.

According to him, in order to be released, a person should actively participate in the investigation and voluntarily provide information about those to whom he gave access to his funds.

According to the proposed changes, droppers and their intermediaries will face a term of up to six years for fraudulent actions with a fine of 300 thousand to 1 million rubles.

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On April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law aimed at protecting citizens from telephone and Internet scams. In particular, banks are now required to extend anti-fraud measures not only to online transfers, but also to ATM transactions.

He also instructed the Russian government, together with the State Duma, to speed up the adoption of laws prohibiting the conclusion of banking contracts with minors without the consent of guardians. Prior to that, on March 5, Putin said that telephone and Internet fraud in Russia had acquired unacceptable proportions.