Criminal law aspects of prosecution of criminal offence of concluding of harmful contracts

Abstract

Economic activities involve a great number of contracts. Those contracts are signed by authorised representatives
or agents for the legal persons. When signing the contracts, those persons have a duty to act in accordance with the
authorisations, in terms of matter and scope, granted to them, act conscientiously and protect the interest of the persons
on whose behalf they sign such contracts. Any departure from this will result in certain consequences and where such
action causes damages to the business entity it takes the form of a socially dangerous conduct and thus qualifi es as a criminal
off ense. The criminal off ense of Concluding a Prejudicial Contract falls within the group of criminal off enses against
the economy, trade and security of payment systems, in which the protected values are the economic system, business
transactions and relations in the economy. This paper will discuss the essential elements of this criminal off ence, the
characteristics of perpetrators, consequences of the off ense, it will address the legal solutions and trends in the region,
provide suggestions as to how best to recognize, detect, investigate and prosecute it, what is a role of an expert witness,
and fi nally, it will point to the modes of perpetration which have appeared in practice.