The concept of “economic crime” has recently become widespread, but the interpretation of this concept and its relationship with such concepts as “crimes in the economic sphere” and “economic crimes” is far from clear by various authors. The team of authors (V.I. Petrov, R.N. Marchenko, L.V. Barinova) in their work “Criminological characteristics and prevention of economic crimes” define economic crime as a set of selfish crimes committed in the economic sphere by persons in the process of professional activity, in connection with this activity, and encroaching on the property and other interests of consumers, partners, competitors and the state, as well as on the order of economic management in various industries farms

According to V.M. Esipov, economic crime should be understood as economic activity carried out in the sphere of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods and services using criminal methods. It's a special kind

economic relations, expressed in criminal forms.

A.M. Yakovlev characterizes the phenomenon as a set of acts that cause damage to state or public property, the economic interests of the national economy or individual citizens, when such acts are related either to the specific position of the perpetrator in the sphere of the national economy, or to the nature of the economic relations in which the participant he will be, either with his social role, or with the social situation characterizing this or that element of the economic mechanism.

Crimes in a market economy are an extremely specific category of criminological theory; it stands apart from all other known types of criminal acts. To understand the nature of economic crime, its causal complex, the motivation and mechanism for committing these acts, to determine a strategy for their prevention, to theoretically synthesize the criminological characteristics of the personality of an economic criminal, etc. - everything cannot be done outside the framework of knowledge of the key patterns to which the market economy is subordinated in this evolutionary development economy and sphere itself economic activity.

It is important to note that one of the important problems of the Republic of Belarus will be solving the issues of hidden threats economic security countries of external and internal nature: ϶ᴛᴏ issues of criminalization of the economy, shadow capital and shadow economic relations that hinder the formation of a civilized market economy. The concept of economic security should reflect the influence of the shadow economy on ensuring the economy and state security, and the state’s attitude to this important problem. The current reality requires economic reform while ensuring active counteraction to the destructive effect of the criminal component of the shadow economy.

Economic activity based on the law of value was not encouraged and became illegal, because the operation of the law of value is objective, and economic activity based on it is the most profitable. As a result, a huge part of the country's population began to engage in illegal economic activities.

The reason for the movement of subjective material interest into the illegal sphere was the difficulty, and sometimes the impossibility, of satisfying it by legal means, in other words, the limited economic independence of the subject in the economic sphere. The participation of the population in illegal economic activities is stimulated

46______________________________________________________

rushes economic crisis, who will remain in sharp impoverishment of the majority of the population.

It is important to know that the assumption in the late 80s - early 90s should be considered a big mistake. XX century spontaneous process of legalization of the criminal and semi-criminal shadow economy, when, as a result of a landslide, poorly regulated course towards the creation of private entrepreneurship, dishonest business rushed into the economy, which transferred criminal relations into economic system countries. Adopted in 1986 The USSR Law “On Individual Labor Activity,” which actually legalized most types of the shadow economy that existed at that time, did not at all lead to a decrease in crimes and other offenses in the economic sphere. And, as a result, currently illegal private property coexists with the legal economic system, as if in its “shadow,” contributing to even greater criminalization of the economy.

Illegal economic crime, coexisting in parallel with state crime, shifts part of the burden of organizing its production and sales onto it and uses the established official forms of political, economic, and managerial relations for their criminal purposes. Our country is characterized by “the creation and reproduction of the shadow economy and the formation on its basis of organized criminal groups (0111) for the purpose of carrying out illegal activities in economic sphere using a legal economic mechanism." The system of the shadow economy, in need of funds of circulation, simply withdraws them from the sphere of legal circulation and transfers them to the ϲʙᴏth, illegal, shadow circulation; as a result, the money is not collected in full, because they are already engaged in shadow circulation.

they raise money by investing it in legal commercial structures, but they themselves officially acquire the status of legal entrepreneurs. There will be legal commercial enterprises with the participation of illegal, including criminal, capital. Illegal capital will be legalized, but a certain part of it will remain in the shadows. It is a mistake to think that criminal “businessmen” will bring real benefits to society and the state by involving huge amounts of money in legal circulation. Legalized leaders of criminal groups introduce the laws and customs of the criminal environment into the legal market economy; imposing them on other entrepreneurs, subordinating everyone else by right of the stronger.

Let us note that the shadow economy will be a breeding ground for organized economic crime. It is important to note that one of the factors in the expansion of crime into the economy is the desire to legalize illegally obtained funds. According to experts, about 70% of all funds obtained illegally are laundered in legal businesses.

A feature of organized crime will be its corruption. A significant portion of bribe takers are found to have close ties with organized criminals. Law enforcement officials, even promising heads of departments for combating organized crime, have been exposed as collaborating with organized criminal groups.

The more corruption spreads, the more sophisticated the connections become. officials with criminal structures. The collusion of officials in various spheres and categories is becoming widespread, as a result of which investments from state budget go to those commercial structures that are under the control of the mafia; False enterprises are created in the same way. Crimes in the sphere of economic activity are complex and simultaneously fall under several elements of crime. Malfeasance in the economic sphere goes hand in hand with crimes against state power, the interests of the civil service and service in local governments. Obstruction of lawful entrepreneurial activity constitutes nothing more than abuse of power.

Corruption in government bodies exists because an official has the opportunity to dispose of resources that do not belong to him (budgetary funds, state and municipal funds).

48______________________________________________________

property, government orders and benefits, etc.) by accepting or rejecting certain decisions.

The structures of power and management associated with resolving issues of financing, lending, and implementation will be the most affected by corruption. banking operations, privatization, licensing and quotas, import and export, distribution of funds, creation and registration of organizations and enterprises, land reform.

Corruption is not only latent, it has a consensual nature, because the parties, receiving mutual benefits, do not make complaints.

Corruption has a negative impact on all areas of activity, the economic consequences will be especially negative:

1. The shadow economy is expanding, which leads to a decrease in tax revenues and a weakening of the budget. As a result, the state is losing financial levers to manage the economy, and social problems due to failure to fulfill budget obligations.

2. The competitive mechanisms of the market are violated, because Often it is not the one who is competitive who wins, but the one who was able to receive or give bribes, which leads, first of all, to a decrease in market efficiency and discrediting the ideas of market competition.

3. Can be used ineffectively budget resources, in particular in the distribution of government orders and loans.

4. Prices are increased due to corrupt “overheads”, which is why the consumer suffers.

5. Let us note that the trust of market agents in the ability of the authorities to establish and comply with fair rules of the market game is lost. Due to the deterioration of the investment climate, the problems of overcoming the decline in production and updating fixed assets are not being resolved.

6. The scale of corruption in non-governmental organizations (firms, enterprises, etc.) is expanding. public organizations), which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of their work, and therefore a decrease in the efficiency of the country’s economy as a whole.

Quite often there are attempts to identify the shadow economy with crimes in the economic sphere.

In Soviet literature, opinions were expressed about the need to limit the range of economic crimes only to economic, official and property crime. So, A.M. Yakovlev uses the term “economic crime” and includes in it crimes that harm the legally protected economic interests of the state and citizens, associated with the peculiarities of the economic and economic mechanism and committed by persons performing certain functions in the system of economic relations.

It seems that this position was completely justified in a command (state) economy, but it is hardly acceptable during the period of expansion of market relations, when almost any private behavior that has an economic motivation always turns out to be connected to one degree or another with an economic one. ) activities. That is why most of the crimes committed, to one degree or another, cause harm to the economic interests of the individual, society or state. In addition, crimes that are not economic in nature may be associated with the peculiarities of the economic mechanism. (For example, at enterprises that operate sources of increased danger, criminal violations of various types of safety rules are often committed.)

V.V. Kolesnikov, trying to define the category of “economic crime,” believes that these are crimes committed by business entities in connection with their entrepreneurial activities. This concept of crimes in the field of economic activity is vague, since it includes not only crimes committed in the field of entrepreneurship, but also crimes related to ensuring the conditions for business activity.

V.V. Luneev uses the term “economic crime” in a fairly broad interpretation and includes in this group all crimes defined by Section 8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (crimes in the economic sphere), as well as official and computer crimes.

The point of view of A.N. is very close to the stated one. Larkov, who classifies as crimes in the economic sphere all actions that harm economic security, the interests of the state and the interests of consumers. It is obvious that a much larger range of crimes fits the specified criteria than is indicated in Chapters 8 and 9 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Other researchers (A.I. Alekseev, Yu.G. Kozlov), trying to determine specific criteria for economic crime, believe that economic crimes should include selfish crimes of an economic nature. It is obvious that these signs are not sufficiently clear.

Later Yu.G. Kozlov expressed, in our opinion, the optimal judgment about the connection between economic crime and the criminal sector of the “shadow economy,” by which he means a set of illegal transactions with goods and services that are not reflected in the corresponding registration system. In accordance with this understanding of economic crime, the author believes that the criminal sector of the “shadow economy” covers the criminal market for weapons and military equipment; illegal export of raw materials, energy, rare earth and non-ferrous metals; “laundering” of illegally obtained money; concealment of income (profit) or other objects of taxation; criminologically significant consequences of privatization; crimes in the financial and credit sector; deception of investors, fraud; intensification of the activities of plunderers of mining, processing and sales precious metals and stones.

The positive aspect of this position is the author’s more precise indication of the area of ​​the economy where economic crime exists - the criminal sector of the “shadow economy”. Note that this concept is extremely broad, since it covers a variety of transactions that can be one-time in nature and aimed at meeting the individual needs of the individual, without pursuing the goal of committing criminal economic crimes. In our opinion, crime in the sphere of economic activity consists of a system of crimes committed for the purpose of making a profit in the production, distribution and exchange of material and spiritual goods, performance of work and provision of services, that is, crimes that constitute criminal entrepreneurship.

The above interpretation of economic crimes is generally shared by Russian scientists. So, according to G.K. Mishina, economic crime consists of attacks on property and business crimes.

There are three main positions in determining the range of crimes covered by the definition of “economic”. The first - the broadest - includes all crimes committed with the aim of obtaining economic gain (enrichment). The second excludes from the list of economic crimes not related to economic activity. The third - the narrowest - recognizes only crimes as strictly economic legal entities as economic entities.

Shadow economy and economic crime
Chapter 1. Fundamentals of the shadow and criminal economy, (beginning) §1.1 – §1.8.

Chapter 1. (End) §1.9 – §1.11.

Chapter 2. Economic crime

Chapter 3. Organized crime in the system of criminal economic relations

Chapter 4. Legalization (laundering) of criminal funds

Chapter 5. Offshore territories and economic crime

Chapter 6. Transnational criminal economic activity

Chapter 7. Criminal deformations and crime in the Russian economy

Chapter 8. Economic crime in the state financial system Russia

Chapter 9. Economic crime in the financial and credit system of Russia

Chapter 10. Control over economic crime in Russia

Chapter 11. Legal and economic aspects of ensuring business security

Glossary
^ Chapter 1. Fundamentals of the shadow and criminal economy ^ Chapter 1. Fundamentals of the shadow and criminal economy 1.1. Concept and structure of the criminal economy
The problems of the shadow economy attracted the attention of researchers back in the 30s. At the end of the 70s, serious research into this area appeared. One of the first serious works in this area is the work of P. Gutmann (USA) “The Underground Economy” (1977), which drew attention to the inadmissibility of ignoring its scale and role.

In 1983, the first international conference on the shadow economy was held in Belefeld, at which about 40 reports were presented that addressed the problems of the shadow economy in various economic systems.

In 1991, a conference of European statisticians was held in Geneva on the hidden and informal economy. Based on its materials, a special manual on statistics of the shadow economy in countries with a market economic system was published. Conferences and seminars on assessment and monitoring of the informal sector are regularly held (1992, 1993), including specifically for the CIS countries.

In May 1996, at the joint meeting of the UNECE (Eurostat) OECD on national accounts, among other issues, the problem of assessing the scale of the shadow economy was considered. Eurostat has created a special working group on hidden economy issues.

In domestic science and economic practice, interest in the problems of the shadow economy clearly manifested itself in the 80s. This was due to both socio-economic reasons associated with the increasing role of its role in the national economy and criminalization, and ideological reasons. The latter manifested itself in the country’s leadership stimulating scientific research aimed at identifying deformations and discrediting the command socio-economic system of state socialism.

Currently, a single generally accepted universal concept of the shadow economy has not been formulated. The variety of positions is due, as a rule, to differences in the nature of the theoretical and applied problems solved by the authors, as well as in the methodology and research methodology.

Let's consider the main approaches to defining the concept that interests us. When studying the shadow economy, researchers are mainly guided by the following goals: fundamental theoretical analysis, statistical assessment, optimization of social economic policy, improving law enforcement, ensuring economic security.

Perhaps the understanding of the shadow economy differs most significantly depending on whether a theoretical or operational approach is chosen.

In the theoretical approach, which is more typical for domestic researchers, the shadow economy is considered as economic category, reflecting a complex system of economic relations.

The operational approach, more typical of foreign researchers, is characterized by the definition of the shadow economy through actions to measure it. This approach used in solving applied, statistical problems, formulating recommendations for improving legislation and adjusting socio-economic policies.

Methodologically, economic, sociological, cybernetic and legal approaches to the study of the shadow economy differ significantly. An interdisciplinary integrated approach is also developing.

A feature of the economic approach is the study of its influence on the effectiveness of economic policy, distribution and use economic resources, development of reliable methods for its assessment and measurement. Economic concepts explore the shadow economy at the global, macro and micro levels, as well as in the institutional aspect.

At the level global economy international shadow relations are considered (for example, drug trafficking, money laundering obtained by criminal means).

At the macro level, shadow economic activity is analyzed from the point of view of its impact on the structure of the economy, production, distribution, redistribution and consumption of gross domestic product, employment, inflation, the economic growth, and other macroeconomic processes.

At the micro level, attention is focused on the study of economic behavior and decision-making by subjects of the shadow economy, business enterprises, and individual illegal markets are explored.

The institutional level of analysis puts at the center the socio-economic institutions of the shadow economy, that is, the system of formal and informal rules of behavior, the sanction mechanism, and the patterns of their development.

Sociological concepts of the shadow economy consider this area from the point of view of interaction social groups, differing in their position in the system of shadow institutions and the motives of economic behavior of subjects in significant situations.

Within the framework of the cybernetic concept, the shadow economy is considered as a self-regulating and manageable system; economic and mathematical models are being developed for forecasting and managing the shadow economy, the patterns of its development and interaction with the official sector.

Within the framework of legal concepts, the phenomena of the shadow economy are considered as a special area of ​​deviant (including criminal) behavior. The main attention is paid to the study of socially dangerous forms of economic activity, the prevention of offenses and the fight against them by legal means (criminological and criminal legal control).

The complexity and importance of the problems of the shadow economy stimulate the development of an interdisciplinary approach to its study.

The understanding of the shadow economy by its various researchers is largely determined by the choice of the main criterion for classifying economic relations in this area.

Depending on this criterion, accounting and statistical, formal legal and integrated approaches differ.

Let's consider specific approaches to defining and structuring the shadow economy.

Accounting and statistical approach. With the accounting and statistical approach, the main criterion for identifying shadow economic relations is their non-accountability, that is, the absence of recording by official statistics. The most consistent and developed is the accounting and statistical approach based on the methodology of the UN System of National Accounts (SNA). The concept of the shadow economy is defined based on the main goal of the SNA - the most accurate accounting of all types of economic activities that provide real contribution in the production of gross domestic product (GDP).

In accordance with the SNA methodology, all manifestations of the shadow economy are divided into two groups:

a) productive activities, the results of which are included in GDP;

b) crimes against persons and property, not included in GDP and recorded in a special account to reduce statistical errors.

The productive part of the shadow economy, included in GDP, includes the following elements:

Indicators of legitimate activities hidden or downplayed by producers to evade taxes or meet other obligations;

Indicators of informal (unofficial legal) activity, including:

The activities of unincorporated (that is, directly owned by one owner, often family-owned) businesses operating for own needs, that is, the production of goods and services produced in households and consumed by them;

Activities of unincorporated enterprises with informal employment (temporary construction teams, etc.).

Indicators of informal illegal activities, including:

Legal activities that are carried out illegally (for example, without licenses and special permits);

Illegal activity, which is the production and distribution of goods and services prohibited by law, for which there is effective market demand (production and distribution of drugs, prostitution, smuggling).

The advantage of this approach is the possibility of quantitative assessment of the hidden part of productive economic activity based on the generally accepted SNA methodology, the use of calculation results in the formation of economic policy and international comparisons. The results of calculating the parameters of the shadow economy using the SNA methodology are extremely valuable for the formation of socio-economic policy, especially in the current situation in Russia, when the problem of control over the shadow economy has moved from the category of purely police to the category of economic and political ones.

However, this approach is not without drawbacks. Let's highlight the most important ones. Within the framework of the SNA concept, it is not possible to satisfactorily assess the scale, structure and impact of criminal activity not related to the production of real GDP. The shadow economy, on the one hand, includes all types of both ordinary and economic crimes, which excessively expands the boundaries of the shadow economy, and on the other hand, their accounting is limited to the impact they have on the production and consumption of GDP current year and the use of this information is limited to the purposes of reducing errors in statistical calculations.

There is also a category of economic offenses and crimes that cannot be quantified within the framework of this methodology due to their specific impact on the economic system. This happens if, as a result of their commission, there is either a redistribution that does not lead to a change in the total volume of GDP, or lost profits of the economy as a whole or individual entities, for example, as a result of unfair competition, market monopolization, or increased investment risks. In addition, the damage that arose in situations of information asymmetry, the transfer of damage from crimes to the consumer through increased prices, and significant negative external effects (for example, in connection with the drug addiction of the population) is not assessed.

A serious problem with this approach can be the lack or imperfection information base statistical calculations.

For example, the scale of the shadow economy in Russia is underestimated, since the State Statistics Committee of Russia, when calculating the volume of GDP, does not take into account the last of the listed types of shadow economic activity due to a lack of information.

As the information basis for calculations improves, the statistical approach can be more effectively used to assess the scale of destructive types of economic activity, as well as to assess the role of the shadow economy not only in production, but also in the consumption of GDP. Thus, the accounting and statistical approach to defining the shadow economy, based on the SNA methodology, can be effectively used to identify productive sectors of the shadow economy, assess their scale and formulate economic and legal policies. At the same time, it needs to be supplemented with other approaches that are more capable of reflecting the redistributive nature of illegal and socially harmful economic activity.

Formal legal approach. As a key criterion for identifying shadow economic phenomena is the attitude towards the normative regulatory system. Specific criteria are: evasion of official or state registration, state control; illegal nature.

D. Makarov (1) V. M. Esipov (2) consider the main distinctive feature of shadow economic activity to be its uncontrolled nature. The last one is the inaccessibility economic information to obtain it using open control methods.

To classify economic phenomena as shadow, V.O. Ispravnikov uses the criterion of illegality and evasion of official registration (3).

P. Orekhovsky uses a more stringent criterion for classification as a shadow economy - the absence of state registration of transactions.

Dallago B. to designate shadow economic processes uses the concept of an unregulated economy, which refers to the activities of economic agents that are not subject to regular rules and laws or are in any way hidden from government agencies management and control (4).

Criminological approach. Within the framework of approaches that can be designated as criminological, the criterion of social harmfulness (danger) of economic activity is used. Let's look at some examples.

K. Ulybin (5) to highlight shadow economic relations uses the criterion of destructiveness, harm to society and its members, and misappropriation of unearned income. If the criterion for obtaining unearned income can be ignored as clearly inadequate modern type economics and based on orthodox political-economic theory, then the second criterion is hardly possible to unambiguously assess. The idea of ​​social harmfulness has significant constructive potential, since it allows us to consider an object relatively independently of current system legal regulation.

At the same time, this approach has such a disadvantage as excessive expansion of the sphere of the shadow economy due to the inclusion of legal, but economically ineffective, suboptimal forms of economic relations, which include various imperfections of the market and the state.

The work of Vakurin and A.V. Nesterov (6) adopted the previous approach, however, the sphere of the shadow economy is limited to deformations of economic relations that are not reflected in the legislation, are not recognized as offenses, and their commission does not entail legal liability.

Integrated approaches. Within integrated approach Various combinations of the previously discussed criteria are used as the basis for identifying the shadow economy.

For example, A.N. To highlight the phenomena of the shadow economy, Shokhin uses criteria such as lack of accounting, lack of regulation and illegality (7).

T.I. Koryagina (8) the shadow economy includes economic activities not recorded by statistics, prohibited by law, as well as postscripts, speculative transactions, fraud related to the receipt and transfer of money (some economic crimes).
^ Classification of shadow economic phenomena
Let's consider the classification of shadow economic phenomena on various grounds. Depending on the nature of the result, shadow economic activities are distinguished:

productive, making a real contribution to the production of gross national product;

Redistributive, not related to the actual creation economic benefits, but redistributing income and property.

In relation to the official economy, a distinction is made between the internal and parallel economies.

The internal economy refers to the shadow relations built into the official economy, associated with the official status of their participants. In other words, the shadow economy is interpreted from this point of view as the unregistered activity of the same agents who operate in the registered part of the economy. This approach is consistently implemented by D. Makarov (9).

Parallel (invading) economy - shadow relations not related to the official economic status their participants. This position in characterizing the shadow economy is adhered to by Ginsburgh V., who views it as a special sector with a special production function, where part of the population is employed without official registration work force(10). Depending on the stages of the reproductive cycle, there are:

shadow production;

Shadow distribution (distribution of income hidden from accounting, economic crimes);

Shadow exchange (sale of illegally produced products, offenses in the consumer market, sale of illegally obtained valuables);

Shadow consumption (consumption of own-produced products, satisfaction of destructive, asocial needs).

The interpretation of the shadow economy by most authors includes economic activity at all stages of the reproduction cycle. The exception is the statistical concept that considers the shadow economy as a productive sector participating in the creation of GDP.

Approaches to defining the shadow economy also differ depending on the mechanisms taken into account for coordinating its individual spheres and sectors. In this regard, the following are highlighted:

shadow market;

Informal economy;

A power-violent mechanism associated primarily with the use or threat of violence.

If the study of the shadow market as an integral element of the shadow economy is general rule, then a number of authors do not include the informal sector in the shadow economy (11). The power-violent mechanism as an element of the shadow economy is recognized only by a few researchers (12). According to the types of markets and economic resources in circulation, the following are distinguished:

shadow economic relations in markets consumer goods and services;

In investment goods markets;

On financial markets;

In the job market;

Other markets (information, technology, intellectual property).

In the literature, from the point of view of this criterion, the following concepts are developed.

A consumer concept in which the shadow economy is limited mainly to the illegal consumer market. This approach was implemented by T.I. Koryagina (13). Among foreign authors, Welish and Findlay adhered to this position.

The labor concept of the shadow economy limits the latter to unregistered and unregulated labor activities.

Both of the above concepts were effective in studying shadow phenomena in an administrative-command system. For conditions of a market and transition economy, the noted approaches are narrow.

The entrepreneurial concept of the shadow economy was developed by A.A. Krylov and was based on the identification of the shadow economy with shadow entrepreneurship (business) (14).

These concepts are constructive for solving specific research problems, however, they cannot be considered as the basis for formulating a universal definition of the shadow economy, which today covers almost all types of markets and economic resources.

The approaches to defining the shadow economy proposed in the literature differ significantly depending on the selected elementary object of shadow economic activity. Among the most constructive ones we can name such as a contract, transaction, operation, production (economic) relations, institution, business enterprise, quantitative parameters of shadow economic activity. Accordingly, the following conceptual approaches can be distinguished.

The contractual concept, developed by V. Ispravnikov, interprets the shadow economy as evasion from the official registration of commercial contracts or deliberate distortion during their registration (15). This approach to the definition is unreasonably narrow, since the generally accepted understanding of a commercial contract excludes from the analyzed sphere labor relations, relations in the sphere of the political market, and the activities of criminal institutions of organized crime. Thus, according to the criterion of the subject of shadow economic relations, the concept under consideration can be designated as entrepreneurial.

In addition, this definition implicitly assumes that the shadow economy includes only commercial contracts that must, according to the law, be officially registered. This definition is also overly narrow, simply because it excludes most economic crimes and the sector of prohibited economic activities.

Transactional concept (the concept of transactions not registered by the state) (16). The introduction of the concept of a transaction as the primary unit of shadow economic activity expands the boundaries of the shadow economy compared to the previous point of view, since an agreement is only a special case of a transaction in which it is necessary to coordinate the will of two or more persons. At the same time, the concept unreasonably limits the scope of the shadow economy only to transactions that are not registered by the state. State registration provided Russian legislation for a limited range of transactions, which include foreign economic transactions, real estate transactions and a number of others. In addition, such an understanding of the shadow economy excludes from it the informal and illegal economy, as well as the redistributive criminal sector.

The operational concept uses the concept of shadow economic operation as a primary element of the shadow economy. Although this approach has been declared in the literature, it has not been carried out consistently, since often in fact an economic operation is identified with a transaction (17). However, the concept of a transaction is broader than the concept of a transaction and can include any economically significant actions aimed at generating shadow income. These include, for example, illegal transactions in system accounting and many others.

The business enterprise concept is a subset of the entrepreneurial concept of the shadow economy and is developed in relation to criminal forms of economic activity. Its peculiarity is the consideration of the shadow economy as a system of criminal business enterprises. It develops like methodological basis economic sciences(the theory of the firm by R. Coase), and legal (the concept of a criminal business enterprise, implemented in legal system USA in order to control organized crime).

The institutional concept considers the shadow economy as a set of institutions, that is, rules of behavior, norms, sanctions for their violation. The study of institutions is carried out on the basis of sociological theory, as well as neo-institutional economics.

The political-economic concept (18) considers the shadow economy as a set of production relations and as a production sector. Its results further development based on orthodox Marxist methodology had limited value for the formation public policy in relation to the uncontrolled sector. At the same time, it is necessary to pay tribute to its explanatory and predictive potential, which is clearly manifested in a number of published works devoted to the accumulation of criminal capital and the formation of the criminal bourgeoisie in Soviet period (19).

The approach to defining the shadow economy for the conditions of a non-market economic system differs in some specifics.

Understanding the shadow economy is also determined by the type of economic system. In particular, in the conditions of administrative command economy This understanding has a number of features.

Grossman (1977) defines the shadow economy in the USSR as all production and exchange for which at least one of following properties: activities for private benefit; activities that violate existing legislation (20). This definition is based on the fact that since a socialist economy cannot serve private gain, both of these properties quite reliably define the sphere of shadow economic activity.

Other researchers (Welish and Findlay, 1986) consider the informal sector, which is limited to the production of products exclusively for consumer use.

Special attention in the works of foreign researchers (Lipton, Stahl, Alexeev, Polterovich) they analyze the most important sector of the Soviet shadow economy - the “black market”, that is, relations associated with resale market prices goods released public sector.

Thus, foreign researchers were characterized by an understanding of the shadow economy in a non-market economic system as a productive sector, hidden from accounting and control or illegal, as well as a redistributive sphere - the shadow market. A characteristic feature of the shadow sector in a command economy is also recognized as its limitation to the areas of the consumer market and employment.

Having examined the main approaches to understanding the phenomenon of the shadow economy, we will consider our own interpretation of it, suitable for use in the future to resolve issues of control over criminal economic activity. The criteria for classifying economic phenomena as the shadow sphere are the following:

obtaining economic benefits in the form of appropriation of economic benefits, rights to economic benefits, increase economic opportunities, reducing costs and risk levels;

Carrying out economic activity outside of official control and regulation, with concealment and camouflage of its significant parameters from law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

As an elementary object of shadow economic activity, it is advisable to consider operations and patterns (schemes, models, templates) of economic behavior. The pattern of shadow economic activity is a set of interrelated actions aimed at obtaining economic benefits and concealing significant parameters of activity. It can also be defined as a strategy or set of strategies for such an activity. The pattern includes shadow operations and other actions as elements. It is characterized by repeatability, stability, and the presence of a stable structure and algorithm. Describing this aspect of activity in the criminal sphere, we are talking about patterns of committing crimes, a specific “handwriting”, etc.

Operations primarily include transactions (transactions), as well as accounting, settlement, and information procedures. Other actions include various hidden agreements, organizational, communicative, physical actions.

Among the shadow operations in the legal economy are:

A) business transactions(technological, production, labor, marketing, sales, logistics operations, trade and a number of others);

b) financial operations(settlement, credit, stock, currency, insurance);

c) accounting operations related to the implementation of accounting, management, and statistical accounting of economic activities.

Depending on the purpose, shadow operations in the legal economy can be aimed at achieving various goals, among which the most important are:

a) decrease tax burden;

b) restriction of competition;

c) obtaining benefits, privileges, and exclusive rights from the state, including through corruption and lobbying for bills;

d) risk limitation;

e) legalization of illegally obtained income;

f) misappropriation of rights to economic benefits.

Among the shadow operations in the legal sector of the economy, aimed at tax evasion, there are: unaccounted for, concealment of part of the turnover, pseudo-operations, illegal operations (21).

The objects of shadow economic transactions are property and non-property rights, material, financial, human, information and other types of economic resources.

In relation to existing basic socio-economic institutions, shadow actions and operations can be of a dual nature:

a) strengthening basic institutions, ensuring that they perform their functions more effective way;

b) deformation, destruction, strengthening of dysfunctions of basic institutions, their use for asocial and criminal purposes.

Moreover, often both objective functions are closely interrelated. The most common feature of shadow economic relations is their uncontrollability. In this case it is necessary to highlight various areas uncontrolled economic relations.

Firstly, this is economic activity, operations in the legal sector, hidden from accounting and control.

Secondly, this area may include economic activities for which legal liability is provided. This is an economic activity in the illegal sector.

Thirdly, this sphere should include economic activities carried out without special operations to conceal them from control. This is an activity that is not formally hidden from control, but is carried out in anticipation of inaction or an inadequate response from regulatory and law enforcement agencies.

The reasons for this situation include:

corruption of regulatory and law enforcement agencies;

Ineffectiveness of the activities of regulatory and law enforcement agencies due to resource and other limitations (activities based on state inaction and impunity);

Imperfection of legislation that prevents the identification, investigation, suppression of activities, and bringing to justice those responsible.

Last feature regulatory system regulation was studied in the specialized literature, and the forms of its manifestation were designated as lex imperfecta and lex simulata (22).

Lex imperfecta - imperfect law, toothless law.

Lex simulata is an imitation, imaginary law - legislation that creates a mechanism that is successful, at first glance, which neither the performers associated with its implementation nor the potential objects of influence intend to apply. This phenomenon occurs if legislation becomes a means of asserting the interests of social groups that influence the legislative process.

This understanding of the uncontrolled nature of the shadow economy does not change the scope of this concept, but it enriches knowledge about its structure, which is important for developing measures to control the analyzed area.
^ Structure of the shadow economy
In the structure of the shadow economy, with a certain degree of convention, the following main areas or blocks can be distinguished.

The productive sector (illegal economy) providing a real contribution to the production of gross domestic product:

a) legal activities carried out illegally, for example, without a license or special permission; hidden production in the legal economy;

b) illegal (informal, in the terminology of the SNA-93) employment, hired work;

c) economic activity prohibited by law.

The redistribution sector of the shadow economy includes various crimes of an economic nature. In the literature to designate individual elements This sector of the shadow economy uses different concepts.

T.I. Koryagina used the term “fictitious economy” - the economy of postscripts, speculative transactions, bribery and all kinds of fraud associated with the receipt and transfer of money (23).

V.O. Ispravnikov also includes in this sector activities aimed at obtaining unjustified benefits and benefits for business entities based on organized corruption connections (24).

There are two special sectors of the economy, which are also uncontrolled and unregulated, and are not reflected, as a rule, in statistical records. These are the domestic sector and the community sector.

The home economy is represented by the sphere of socially necessary productive domestic labor, which is not paid and is outside the sphere of commodity exchange. Included in the home economy work activity for the production of products that replace goods purchased for money in the official economy.

The signs of a home economy are: productive nature, lack of accounting, official regulation, non-illegal nature, lack of exchange in market and non-market forms.

The community economy is represented by a system of production and sale of goods and services, which is based on non-monetary exchange. It operates within communities formed on the basis various forms social connections: family, neighborly, friendly relations, proximity of cultures, religious views, profession, ideological orientation, etc.

Community economy is a form of development of the home economy when it goes beyond the family. If the exchange of goods within various types of communities begins to be carried out in monetary form, the communal economy becomes illegal.

The signs of a communal economy are: productive, non-illegal, nature, non-monetary exchange, non-compliance with the principle of equivalence, unregulated, unaccounted for nature.

These sectors, in our opinion, should not be classified as the shadow economy. This is due to the fact that concealment from accounting and taxation does not occur in these areas. The legislation does not provide for the obligation of official registration and payment of taxes. This activity is not, as a rule, illegal. This understanding of the shadow economy is also justified from a criminological position when considering it as a factor in economic crime. The spheres of home and community economics are not associated with going beyond the legal framework and are not factors in the criminalization of economic relations.

Some authors classify these areas of economic activity as the legal part of the informal economy (25).
^ Concept and structure of criminal economy
The most important trend in the development of the shadow economy is its criminalization, the increasing influence of organized crime, and the increase in its danger to society. In this regard, it is advisable to identify an independent sector of the criminal economy in the system of economic relations.

The concept of criminal economics is focused, first of all, on the study of the causes and mechanisms of economic and socially dangerous phenomena, as well as the prevention and suppression of socially dangerous activities.

The first study of criminal economics was carried out by A.A. Krylov. He introduced the very concept of “criminal economy” into scientific circulation and gave the following definition: “Criminal economy is a complex system of illegal socio-economic relations and financial

The radical criminalization of the economy, economic relations, the growth of the shadow sector of the economy, the scale of economic crimes contribute to the expansion economic organized crime.

Under economic crime refers to economic activity carried out by criminal methods and aimed at achieving illegal enrichment, where a number of conditions are identified that determine its growth:

• (1) imperfection of the relevant legislative framework;
• (2) lack of an adequate legal mechanism for control and protection;
• (3) imperfection of the law enforcement system;
• (4) crisis of financial, monetary, credit, etc. relations, tax system.

Analysis of the current economic situation in the country shows that, due to the operation of these conditions, criminal factors largely determine the possible paths of development of Russian entrepreneurship, at least for the near future.

Characterizing the state of crime in the sphere of business in the modern period, it should be noted that organized crime has a significant share in this process.

There are currently 116 criminal communities operating in Russia, with interregional and international connections. Total number active participants in these organized crime groups reach 4 thousand people. They control at least 500 large business entities.

Criminal communities are actively spreading their influence “beyond national borders, creating financial and economic positions in more than 40 foreign countries. At the same time, organized crime is showing “increased interest in establishing corrupt relationships and infiltrating government and administrative bodies.”

The legislation of the Russian Federation does not have a clear definition of organized forms of crime, and the characteristics that distinguish crimes committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy and an organized group of persons by prior conspiracy or simply by an organized group are not formulated, therefore the concepts of a gang, a criminal community, a criminal organization, an organized criminal group, organized criminal groups will be conditionally interchangeable, although an analysis of practice and constantly updated information convinces that in the sphere of shadow entrepreneurship there are criminal entities that are more complex in their internal structure than an organized group or gang, and they are not limited to committing one economic crime. Therefore, criminal education in the field of entrepreneurship, which has other qualitative features than an organized group, can be called "organization". If in civil law it is impossible to exclude a double interpretation of the concept of “organization,” then in order to combat organized crime at the present stage it would be quite sufficient to formulate clearer grounds for distinguishing between acts committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy and an organized group.

However, organized crime in the sphere of entrepreneurship, as a social phenomenon, cannot be given economic definition based only on legal characteristics determined by the very “nature” of the subject under study, based on the properties inherent in the phenomenon. Although criminologists, both in Russia and in all developed countries, faced with the fact of self-reproduction of crime, it would be wrong to talk about crime as an independent subculture with a well-functioning reproduction mechanism independent of external conditions, although an analysis of the criminal cases of Russian oligarchs indicates that recognized social, economic, and political roots feed crime, serve as channels of communication between different subcultures - society and crime.

Crime is largely predetermined by targeted activities aimed at obtaining super-profits from the criminal world itself, represented by its specific leaders. But the will of these leaders, in turn, is organized and directed subculture, both internal (own, generic) and external, the product of which they themselves are. Therefore, it would not be entirely correct to judge only the internal factors of crime in the sphere of entrepreneurship as the only ones contributing to its reproduction. Crime, as a social phenomenon, exists due to the action of circumstances external to it - specific, socio-historical ( transition economy) and territorial-temporal reasons and conditions (the coming to power in the regions of oligarchs and large businessmen). From an economic point of view, organized crime as a multi-level and complexly structured phenomenon has a material (economic) embodiment in the form of specific illegal (criminal) economic activity, in the form of specific internal and external financial and economic relations, interaction of partners and their intermediaries within a given hierarchy and beyond. outside of it.

Organized crime in the sphere of entrepreneurship has a number of characteristics, the analysis of which helps to explain the nature of this phenomenon.

• (1) Activities of associations of criminal persons or groups united for the purpose of obtaining excess profits (excess income). Economic benefits are obtained either by providing illegal services and goods, or by providing legal services and goods in an illegal form.
• (2) Conspiratorial criminal activity in which hierarchical structures coordinate the planning and execution of illegal acts or the achievement of legitimate goals through illegal means.
• (3) Organized criminal groups tend to establish a partial or complete monopoly on the provision of illegal goods and services to consumers, as this ensures higher revenues.
• (4) Organized crime is not limited to carrying out obviously illegal activities or providing illegal services. It also includes such sophisticated activities as money laundering through legitimate economic structures and manipulations carried out using electronic means. Illegal criminal groups are infiltrating many lucrative legitimate businesses.
• (5) Organized criminal groups use various measures in their “work”, which can be sophisticated and subtle or, conversely, crude, direct, open to establishing a monopoly on the provision of illegal goods and services, to penetrate legal activities, to corrupt officials persons, etc.

Thus, persons participating in organized criminal business activities are engaged in legitimate commercial activities, but introduce methods of violence and intimidation that are used in illegal activities.

Hence, organized crime - This is not a set of criminal acts, but complex system-structural complex figures of the criminal world. Organized crime exists in the form of criminal communities, i.e. a qualitatively different phenomenon than ordinary complicity.

New signs of the development of organized crime in the sphere of entrepreneurship are currently:

• (1) trends in the consolidation of the criminal environment associated with:
• (a) the unification of criminal groups and individuals committing crimes in the field of business into integral, multi-level, centralized criminal systems, i.e. with the formation of qualitatively new organizational structural formations (criminal organizations, associations, communities);
• (b) streamlining criminal activity, subordinating it to constant economic program criminal in nature;
• (c) strengthening of criminal relationships between subjects of organized crime in the field of business;
• (2) systematic extraction of illegal excess income through the organization and implementation of various forms of criminal entrepreneurship;
• (3) use of legal structures of society for criminal purposes and merging with the state apparatus - complicity of individual government officials in criminal business activities;
• (4) the possibility of exerting a reverse influence on official social structures.

• Kolesnikov V. Conditions and reasons for the criminalization of economic relations at the stage of market reforms. St. Petersburg, 1995. P. 13.
• Russian newspaper. 2013. No. 16(57). March 24.
• Right there.
• Kolesnikov V. Decree. op. P. 13.

Shadow economy is the activity of business entities that develops outside state accounting and control.

This is a complex socio-economic phenomenon that covers the entire system of socio-economic relations, and above all, the reproduction sector uncontrolled by society, where the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of economic goods and entrepreneurial abilities are hidden from government authorities.

There are various types of activities that oppose the beneficial development of the economy, harm society and create a shadow economy - an economy that is deforming and socially dangerous. Identifying such negative formations, blocking them and overcoming them is an indispensable condition for the full development of society.

Understanding the essence of the shadow economy as a socially harmful activity allows in full identify this sector, see the internal connections and interdependence of relevant phenomena, which makes it possible to reveal the conditions, causes and mechanisms of the emergence and spread of the shadow sector of the economy as a socio-economic phenomenon inherent in any social formation.

The shadow economy is closely intertwined with the legal and real sector economy and is its integral part. In its activities, it also uses the services of the state, its material and social factors, labor, etc., without entering into economic relations with the state as a business entity.

The shadow economy has two main interrelated features:

· illegal activities for the purpose of obtaining uncontrolled income solely for one’s own interests;

· receiving income that is completely or partially removed from fiscal control in order to obtain additional economic benefits.

During the period of formation and development, the shadow economy combined three enlarged elements: unofficial, which includes all legally permitted types of economic activity, within which the production of goods and services not taken into account by official statistics takes place, concealment of this activity from taxation, etc.; fictitious - registrations, theft, speculative transactions, bribery and all kinds of fraud associated with the transfer of money; underground - types of economic activity prohibited by law. This phenomenon was assessed as a negative phenomenon, while aspects associated with the formation of new market relations could be considered positive. Any activity in the shadow economy is criminal, but not every activity falls within the scope of existing legislation. It is believed that the boundaries of the concept of “economic crime”, due to its conventionality, are generally very difficult to determine in a strictly criminal legal sense. It is necessary to distinguish between two groups of economic crimes.

The first group is the activities of entrepreneurs who are forced to hide from paying taxes under the conditions of an unbearable tax burden imposed by the state. Thus, the reason for the spread of the shadow economy on a large scale is the failure of state power, its intellectual unsuitability, when the rules for conducting legal business activities force entrepreneurs to look for workarounds in order to maintain their business and not join the ranks of the unemployed. Consequently, the state must attract all its intellectual potential to develop such normative legal acts(or laws) that would allow attracting the majority of entrepreneurs into the sphere of the legal economy, while maintaining labor motivation, moral and material interest. In countries with developed market economy The share of enterprises that conduct legal activities is significantly higher than in countries with economies in transition.

The second group is economic crimes that go beyond tax evasion, from which not only the budget and its various funds suffer, but also society as a whole. Trafficking in weapons, drugs, embezzlement public funds etc. - all these are economic crimes that are also criminal. They require completely different preventive measures than the first group. Illegally acquired capital, diverting significant financial resources society, provokes an exacerbation of the financial crisis, undermines economic environment functioning of legal capital and, being legalized, determines priorities investment policy states.

A generally accepted criminal law and criminological concept of “economic crime” has not currently been developed, despite its widespread use in scientific circulation. The understanding of economic crime is extremely vague. Problems of economic crime have attracted the attention of researchers throughout the history of the development of this phenomenon.

There are several stages in the development of economic crime in Russia.

First stage: 1992-1993. During this period, the greatest damage was caused by theft of bank funds using fictitious payment documents.

Second stage: 1993-1994 associated with fraudulent activities of trust and financial companies - " financial pyramids". The damage they caused is estimated at 20 trillion non-denominated rubles. The number of affected citizens, according to various estimates, was up to 10 million people. When committing crimes, the following were most often used: obviously unenforceable loan, trust, sales, insurance agreements; sale of shares and valuable surrogates papers without cash security. Many financial companies collected cash for the construction of housing, cottages, purchase of cars, employment abroad, etc.

Third stage: 1994 - 1996 Typical crimes were theft of credit resources from commercial banks.

Fourth stage: 1996 - present, associated with an increase in crimes committed using electronic means of access (carding), computer crime, active use of Internet resources for criminal purposes. Modern stage is also characterized by numerous abuses in the field of bill circulation.

Throughout the reform period, illegal capital exports have been typical.

In a traditional crime, there is a criminal who must be caught, and the fact of the crime itself is in most cases obvious. In an economic crime, the very fact of committing a crime is doubtful or difficult to prove. In this case, sophisticated methods are used to hide traces, perpetrators, and criminally obtained funds.

If a traditional criminal is sentenced to imprisonment, the deterrent effect of this punishment in most cases is small. The use of this measure against an economic criminal is more effective, since he, first of all, is afraid of losing his social status and respectability, without which he will not be able to act as a business partner. In addition, imprisonment cuts off the criminal’s path to managing money, which makes the crime itself meaningless. This concept, developed by a number of American criminologists, in particular K. Eskridge, is used in the criminal law of many countries. Most members of society are indifferent to economic crime. The basis for such indifference may be the circumstances that the fact of causing damage to society is difficult to establish, that an economic criminal does not correspond to the established stereotype of a traditional criminal, and that in the opinion of the majority of the population, both the state and the victim himself, who had so much money, are to blame for the crime. the origin of which the victim often cannot explain.