Issue: № 4, 2026
Doi: https://doi.org/10.37634/efp.2026.4.14
It is determined that the generic object of property legalization is the sphere of economic activity, which is broad in content and covers both social relations in the sphere of production and social distribution of goods and services, and social relations in the sphere of functioning of economic and financial instruments. The direct object of property legalization is social relations regarding the legal turnover of money and property, which covers certain aspects of economic (economic) turnover - the sphere of turnover of goods (interchangeable goods) and services, which aims to make a profit, and civil turnover - a system of relations, the purpose of which is the free alienation of objects of civil rights or their transfer from one person to another by succession or inheritance or in another way (Article 178 of the Civil Code of Ukraine). A mandatory sign of a criminal offense, provided for in Article 209 of the Criminal Code, is its subject - property, in respect of which the factual circumstances indicate its criminal acquisition. In this case, property should be understood as movable and immovable property, funds (cash and non-cash money in both national and foreign currency), rights to such funds or property, virtual assets, electronic money and other types of assets. It is justified that actions aimed at concealing or masking the illegal origin of funds received as a result of committing a predicate act or possessing them, as well as rights to them, the source of their origin should be understood as any actions of a person by means of which the fact of receiving such funds, which preceded the legalization (laundering) of these incomes, is masked or concealed. Therefore, a mandatory feature of the subjective side of this element of the crime is the special purpose of legalization, i.e. giving a lawful appearance to the possession, use and disposal of funds and property. This clearly distinguishes the legalization of property and the disposal of property obtained by criminal means at one's own discretion. Therefore, for the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in modern court practice, cases of identification of legalization of property and disposal of property obtained by criminal means at one's own discretion aren’t identified. It is determined that the direct object of a criminal offense, provided for in Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, must characterize not only social relations that are directly harmed, but also reflect the features of its generic object, which in our case is the sphere of economic activity. Differences in the definition of a specific object and the attribution to it of criminal offenses that are different in their features raise doubts about the possibility of distinguishing universal features of criminal offenses that could be close or homogeneous with the legalization of property obtained by criminal means, with the exception of the criminal offense provided for in Art. 209-1 of the Criminal Code, i.e. intentional violation of the requirements of the legislation on prevention and counteraction to the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, financing of terrorism and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. And even in this case, in our opinion, the presence of two criminal offenses, as encroaching on the established procedure for preventing and countering the legalization of property, is not enough to determine a specific object. At the same time, this does not refute the possibility of distinguishing specific objects of other criminal offenses in the field of economic activity. At the same time, the possibility of distinguishing a specific object among criminal offenses in the field of economic activity does not mean the possibility and expediency of its separation in relation to all the specified criminal offenses.
Keywords : object of a criminal offense, generic and direct object of a criminal offense, subject of a criminal offense, criminal liability, legalization (laundering) of property, crime, criminal legislation
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