Termination of Dollateralized Obligations as an Illegal Action in Case of Bankruptcy: Problems of Criminal Law Assessment

Abstract

There is a general rule according to which if the claims of some creditors on the debtor’s property are knowingly satisfied to the detriment of other creditors, it constitutes an illegal action in case of bankruptcy provided that such an action inflicted major damage. In its turn, the size of the inflicted damage coincides with the size of satisfied claims minus the share that would have been due to the creditors who satisfied their claims this way if the insolvency estate has been distributed according to the insolvency law. At the same time, the corresponding crime may be committed not only through the due performance of an obligation, but also through the termination of bail bonds on other grounds. When the authors analyze illegal actions in cases of bankruptcy committed through the provision of release property, they conclude that if the market value of the release property exceeds the size of terminated obligations by the sum equaling major damage, the actions should be classified as multiple offences under Parts 1, 2, Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As for the order of determining the size of damage when satisfying claims secured by the debtor’s property, the authors pay attention to the privileged status of the pledge holder: a part of proceeds from the sale of pledged property must be used to satisfy their claims on the principal plus interest. Thus, for the corresponding part of the value of the object of pledge, no damage is inflicted on other creditors in connection with satisfying the claims of the pledgee. In some circumstances, the claims of the pledge holder are satisfied by a part of the proceeds from the sale of the object of pledge designated for the satisfaction of other claims, which cannot be overlooked when determining the size of the inflicted damage. The exceptions are the cases when, as a result of satisfying the claims of the pledgee, their claims on compensating damages and (or) paying financial sanctions were also satisfied. The satisfaction of the abovementioned claims in the size equaling major damage constitutes a crime under Part 2, Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, if the difference between the size of pledge requirements terminated by the provision of release property, and the value of the transferred assets equals major damage, the actions must be classified as multiple offences under Parts 1, 2, Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.