Separate Penalties for Theft from Bank Accounts and Electronic Money

The State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation on Tuesday recommended that the chamber adopt, in the first reading, amendments to the Criminal Code establishing separate penalties for theft of funds from bank accounts and electronic money. The corresponding bill was introduced by a group of deputies led by Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the Lower House Committee on Financial Markets (A Just Russia).

The initiative proposes to supplement Article 159.6 of the Russian Criminal Code (Fraud in the Field of Computer Information) with a qualifying feature—namely, theft of funds from a bank account or electronic money.

At the same time, the bill provides for amendments to Article 159.3 of the Criminal Code (Fraud Using Electronic Means of Payment). Specifically, it proposes to establish liability in the Criminal Code for “theft of another person’s property committed using a counterfeit or someone else’s electronic means of payment, including credit, debit, or other payment cards, by deceiving an authorized employee of a credit, commercial, or other organization.”

According to the draft law, the maximum penalty for this crime should be increased from the current four months to three years of imprisonment.

The initiative also provides for lowering the threshold amounts for large and especially large damages for crimes under these articles (250,000 rubles and 1 million rubles, respectively). Under current criminal law, the maximum penalty for theft of funds from a bank account in an especially large amount is 10 years of imprisonment.