Criminal legal characteristics of economic crimes committed using digital technologies

The subject of the research is the criminal law characteristics of economic crimes committed using digital technologies in the context of the digitalization of economic activities and the remote circulation of funds. It examines how the use of information and telecommunications networks, electronic payment services, digital platforms, and remote identification methods influences the structure of the crime and its qualification practices. The typical forms of digital methods for committing property and financial offenses are analyzed, as well as the relationship between property crimes and crimes in the field of computer information. The risks of legal collision, issues of establishing the object of infringement and causation, and factors contributing to the growth of latency associated with anonymity, distributed infrastructure, and the cross-border nature of operations are discussed separately. Special attention is given to situations where the digital environment is merely a tool for the crime. The methodological basis consists of analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization, formal-legal interpretation of the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and a systemic approach that connects the criminal law and procedural aspects of digital evidence. The research is theoretically legal in nature and is based on the analysis of current legislation in the Russian Federation and modern scientific publications. The scientific novelty lies in justifying the digital method of committing economic crimes as a legally significant element of criminal law characterization, which changes not the object of protection but the parameters of the objective side and the evidentiary model. Criteria for distinguishing cases where the infringement is aimed at property relations (Chapters 21-22 of the Criminal Code) and where the object is the security of computer information (Chapter 28 of the Criminal Code) are formulated: the decisive factors are the intent's direction, the nature of the impact (on the victim or the information system), and the mechanism of harm. It is shown that formal accounting of the "digital" toolkit without analyzing the object leads to norm competition and heterogeneous practices. The conclusion is made about the appropriateness of unifying qualification approaches through clarifications on typical digital schemes and refining the signs of interference in the information system.