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Fraud tops Russia’s most frequently recorded crimes

In 2017 one fraud was registered every three minute in average

MOSCOW, January 7. /TASS/. Fraudulent activities were among the most frequently committed crimes in 2017, with one fraud registered every three minute in average, according to the statistics of the Russian prosecutor general’s office for January-November 2017.

"The number of crimes committed in the form of fraudulent activities (articles 159, 159.6 of the Russian Criminal Code) increased by 6.8% on the same period of 2016, to amount to 204,870," according to the document. Most of such crimes were registered in the Saratov region (by 2.5 times, or by 2,400 cases more than in 2016), in the Kaliningrad region (by two times, or 1,100 cases), in the Nizhny Novgorod (by 1.5 times, or by 1,700 cases), in St. Petersburg (by 1,400 cases), and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous area (by 1,200 cases).

Whereas the overall crime detection rate across Russia was 54%, clearance data for fraudulent activities was 25%. In January-November 2017, the number of cleared fraud cases increased by 4.2%, or by 51,700 cases. As many as 42,000 fraud cases were referred to court.

In the past five years, or since 2013, the share of fraud cases in the overall structure of crimes has gone up from 7.5 to 10.7%, to outstrip the number of drug-related crimes.

In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court issued a separate resolution on fraud and embezzlement crimes. According to the Russian prosecutor general’s office statistics, the number of economic crimes in January-November 2017 decreased by 3.3%, or by 102,000 cases. The number of corruption-related crimes stayed as it was in the previous year (28,000), the number of exposed bribes (including the new article on a small-sized bribe) increased by 4.6% The aggregate loss from such crimes in January-November 2017 (on closed or suspended criminal cases) went down by 27.4%, to stand at 351 billion rubles (6.16 billion US dollars).

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