The business asked the State Duma to soften the criminal prosecution of IT businessmen

APKIT includes MTS, VK, Yandex and other important IT players. The association proposed to exempt criminal responsibility businessmen, who first committed a criminal offense and paid a fine or compensated for the damage. Among other proposals:

• Allow entrepreneurs to have assigned a preventive measure in the form of prohibition of certain actions, continue working in the main place and use the Internet;

• Count 16 hours per day of execution of punishment or preventive measure;

• establish clear terms of forensic examinations and research actions;

• prohibit considering cases of economic crimes for more than three months;

• Create more understandable rules to send requests for bail release.

The consequences of persecution. The Chief of the Apkit Nikolay Komlev, in an interview with RBC, said it is necessary to distinguish the economic crimes of IT leaders committed “for frankly criminal purposes” of “individual errors in the activities of the companies.” According to Komlev, the latter are punished excessively difficult, “as a result, the activities of IT companies are blocked, which are guided by such entrepreneurs, the development of technology and commercial stops.”

What do legislators think? The head of the Duma Information Policy Committee, Sergei Boyarsky, told RBC that “assigning in a special category of IT entrepreneurs, with its unconditional special importance for the economy, the question is at least debatable.” The first vice president of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, Artem Sheikin also considered inappropriate to assign Ishnov among other businessmen.

The partner of the Association of Pen & Paper Bar, Vadim Kluvgan, added that “this approach is contrary to the constitutional principle of the equality of all before the law and the court.” In addition, the adoption of clear terms of exams and other research measures “will affect the interests of protection”, since “defense receives access to the case file much later.”

• Previously, on February 11, in Mari el, under suspicion of fraud, the entrepreneur and founder of the Edtech Ispring Yuri Ushov company was arrested. Near the case, the sources stated that the employer was arrested in the case related to the acquisition of the land. At the same time, in the company itself, the detention was related to its social activities. The next day, the businessman was released from custody.