Criminal characteristics of fraud and peculiarities of the initial investigation stage

Master’s paper analyzes and describes the juridical and criminalistic characteristics of the fraud crimes, the understanding of which helps to disclose the particular criminal act. The analysis of the peculiarities of fraud disclosure and investigation planning is followed by the presentation of basic typical investigation situations, typical versions and directions that depend upon the situation and the proposed versions of investigation. The paper also deals with the specifics of certain fraud investigation proceedings, their statistics and problems in the initial stage of investigation. The period of economic recession faces new varieties of criminal acts, like the fraud in telecommunication and computer area, fraud with the intention of VAT robbery by making attempts illegally appropriate the state budget income, also by using the services of telecommunications, by manipulating and abusing people’s trust or making fraudulent consulting agreements on the employment in a foreign country. Other important issues covered by this paper are the fraud by abusing the valid legal instruments, fraudulent bankrupt situations and sale of bankrupted companies’ debts. Master’s paper goes into the depth of these issues and offers solutions