Author

Sharapov R.D., Minin R.V., Kapaeva Е.O.

Title of article

CRYPTOCURRENCY: CRIMINAL LAW ASPECT

Section

Section 4. Criminal Law

Issue, year

2 (44) 2018

Abstract

The problem of the lack of legislative regulation of the digital currency turnover is considered in the article. Analyzing the economic nature of cryptocurrency, the authors agree with the opinion that the studied cash equivalents have all the necessary features of real money and actually
act as a means of payment. At the same time, the situation when the regulator evades the regulation of the procedure for using the cryptocurrency, gives rise to some criminal law problems. In particular,
it is impossible to protect the rights of citizens who become victims of computer fraud, since the right of ownership of virtual currency is not recognized. on the other hand, there is a problem of qualifying
the acts in cases when the cryptocurrency is used for criminal purposes, for example, when committing corruption crimes. The paper examines the examples of law enforcement practice when the courts
did not give a proper criminal law assessment of actions connected with the use of virtual money. In the world practice, there are several main areas of criminal activity associated with cryptocurrency: tax
evasion; money laundering; smuggling transactions; extortion, fraud and theft. The authors believe that cash equivalents can be used as a subject of bribes and other crimes, that’s why such acts should
receive an appropriate criminal law assessment.

Keywords

сryptocurrency; cash equivalents; criminal liability; fraud; bribe.

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