Crowdfunding: Social Enterprise and Corruption Counteraction in This Sphere

Abstract

At present, crowdfunding is viewed as a prospective trend in entrepreneurship, an important element of ensuring the economic development of the country. Modern research of crowdfunding mainly focuses on success indicators for financing various projects in this segment of economy. However, the specific technical situation of its functioning does not eliminate the risk of financial losses for investors from various criminal actions of investment seekers, which makes it necessary to assess these risks and pay attention to the problems of current normative regulation of crowdfunding. The authors study different features of crowdfunding, analyzes the models where the risk of abuse is highest. They also describe signs of crimes in the sphere of crowdfunding, primarily signs of crimes indicating fraudulent actions, and presents factors that make it possible to predict a factual or potential fraud in crowdfunding. The conducted research allowed the authors to conclude that the stress that Russian legislation puts on informing the investor about the persons that seek investment, on their investment proposals, on limiting the sum of investment, is not an effective measure of preventing fraud and that additional measures for protecting investors are necessary.