What to do when authorities send inquiries?
More and more often law enforcement agencies send requests to entrepreneurs. It can be the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, Prosecutor’s Office, IC.
On the one hand, a request is, as it were, nothing yet, but an unambiguous signal that business is of interest. And if so, it means you have to respond properly. Your answers are the information that can become evidence in a criminal case. That is, the same documents that you provide can then work against you.
I will describe how the system works. According to the law on the OIA, the information is collected quickly in relation to the person of interest. The officers gather all the information they can, work out the general scheme of the crime, calculate the possible damage, and identify the persons who may have been involved. They get material from different sources – public and non-public. Including by inquiries from you or the contras. Then, the amount of data turns into quality, a package of materials is formed, the evidence base is formed and then they make a decision on whether to open a criminal case.
Logically, it does not cost anything to provide them. Less they know, less risk. But it is necessary to answer. If there is a request, it seems that you have to comply, except that the request should be studied for legality and to identify its possible incorrectness.
As a minimum, it must contain all the necessary details and references to laws, for example, if it is the Interior Ministry, the law “On Police”, the Code of Criminal Procedure, if from the prosecutor’s office – the law “On Prosecutor’s Office”, the FSB – a reference to the law “On the FSB”. Well, there is usually an order in these requests, as they are written according to a template.
The second point is the validity. This is more difficult for the authorities. The document must have the number of the check carried out by the CPSS or the number of the criminal case. And also there should be an indication of the facts on which the inspection is being conducted or the criminal case is being investigated. And there must be information about how the information requested relates to the ongoing investigation or inspection. In practice, this is often “forgotten”.
If there are no numbers, facts and information as it relates to the investigation, sometimes it is written that the requested information is used “for official purposes. It is clear that here you do not smell any validity. Therefore, you can write a response with a request to properly justify your claims. In such a case you do not need to provide the information, and there would be no liability. But an answer with a justification why you don’t provide it is necessary, and within the specified timeframe.
What will happen if you do nothing and send such an answer? Yes, in most cases – nothing. In practice, after a competent answer with all the prerequisites, there will be no consequences. It is true that sometimes the investigator can get angry and threaten to come here, conduct an investigation, confiscate everything, and bring the director to justice. In reality, it’s usually a ponce, and nothing of the sort happens. Usually, the operatives are also aware that the request is not justified.
My advice is this:
don’t be afraid, just like you shouldn’t give the agency guys too much credit. Answer, but do it intelligently. To do this, contact a competent lawyer. You can do a lot of damage yourself.