TOP 5 DESIRABLE ELEMENTS OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION: ALEXEY KASATKIN SPOKE AT PRAVO.RU CONFERENCE

 ‘Company’s Top Managers Liability’ conference organized by Pravo.ru was held on September 23. It united over 100 business and legal market representatives, and journalists.

The following issues were discussed at the four-session conference:

-          Security of the Director’s property in case of forfeiture;

-          Subsidiary liability of top management for the decisions made,

-          Preventive measures to be taken to protect the Director from unethical practices of the company’s board;

-          Issues of bringing the Directors to criminal prosecution considering recent clarifications of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation plenum.

The Director is like a captain who selects the course of a ship himself. The ship's course often prepares ordeals for the captain and the crew. The captain steers and ensures safe navigation of the vessel, maintains discipline and averts possible risks. If the ship is in distress, the captain takes action to save the crew and the ship.

Alexey Kasatkin, Criminal Defense Firm Senior Partner, spoke at the conference and moderated the third session, ‘The Captain Is the Last One off a Sinking Ship: Criminal Liability of Top Managers’.

In his speech, ‘Top 5 Most Desirable Elements of the Criminal Code of The Russian Federation. Latest Criminal Cases against Top Managers in 2020-2021’, using CDF’s and other public cases, Alexey uncovered not so mainstream, yet most desirable Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation at the moment:

• Article 160 (Misappropriation or Embezzlement);
• Article 196 (Deliberate Bankruptcy);
• Article 201 (Abuse of Authority);
• Article 204 (Bribery in a Profit-making Organization);
• Article 291 (Bribe-giving).

Further on, partners of different law firms addressed the following matters:

- Criminal liability of business entities’ founders for stealing property of their own companies;

- Prosecuting a director on abuse of authority (Articles 201 and 201.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Relevant regulations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation plenum ‘On matters of judicial practices on criminal cases against the interests of employment in commercial and other organisations’;

- ‘If you’re appointed as captain of a sinking ship, somebody needs to get rid of you’. Settling economic disputes through prosecuting a director. How do the old methods of struggle work in the new realities?

- Peculiarities of proving a director’s guilt. How to prove good faith and reasonableness in a top manager’s actions?

- Peculiarities of prosecuting a director through bankruptcy process, and after its discharge. How a moratorium on bankruptcy affected the prosecution of directors?

The full conference programme is available here.