How to get your pension savings back if they were unlawfully transferred to a non-state pension fund?

Have you found a notification from the Pension Fund in your mailbox that your application has been approved and your pension savings have been transferred to a non-state pension fund? You didn't write any statements? It is likely that scammers did this for you. How to get your pension savings back if they were unlawfully transferred to a non-state pension fund?

If you have received such a notification from the Pension Fund and are sure that your pension savings were transferred to the NPF unlawfully or that you were misled, you must immediately contact the Pension Fund branch at your place of residence or place of actual residence. Pension Fund specialists will explain your rights to manage pension savings, including the transfer of pension funds back to the Pension Fund or Non-State Pension Fund of your choice.

You have the right to file a claim with the NPF to which your pension savings were unlawfully transferred. The text of the claim is drawn up in free form. The NPF is obliged to inform you on the basis of which your pension savings were transferred to this NPF. The NPF must have the original agreement with you on the transfer of pension savings.

You can write a complaint against the NPF to which your pension savings were transferred and send it to the Pension Fund through the online reception or by mail in a simple letter (119991, Moscow, Shabolovka St., 4, Department for Work with Citizens' Appeals) . You can also leave a complaint and get advice on further actions in the “Consultation Center” on the PFR website by calling the PFR hotline at 8 800 510-55-55.

At the same time, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation reminds: your pension savings do not disappear anywhere. These funds are still in your individual personal account in the compulsory pension insurance system.

What to do if your savings were transferred illegally?

To transfer pension savings funds back to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, no later than December 31 of the current year, submit a corresponding application for the transfer of pension savings funds to the territorial body of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation at the place of residence. Also, if you wish, you can remain in this NPF or move to another fund.

REMINDER!

If you were born in 1967 or younger, in 2015 you have the right to refuse to form a funded pension and use the entire amount of employer insurance contributions to finance only the insurance pension. At the same time, all previously generated pension savings are preserved: they continue to be invested and will be paid in full when you become eligible to retire and apply for it.

In order to refuse a funded pension, you must submit a corresponding application to the territorial body of the Pension Fund at your place of residence.*

*if you have never submitted an application to the Pension Fund for choosing a management company or a non-state pension fund and have not become a victim of an unlawful transfer of pension savings, you do not need to submit an application to renounce your funded pension. It will automatically cease to form in 2016.

Popular methods of fraud involving the transfer of pension savings

Method 1

Agents of a non-state pension fund come to your work (or even home) (as a rule, they do not specify that they represent a private structure) and, appealing to non-existent provisions of the law, urge you to immediately transfer your pension savings - otherwise they will allegedly “burn out”, their “reset to zero”, etc.

What to do: if strangers come to your home, then at a minimum, you do not need to open the door. If for work, then refuse the offered services. If you are particularly persistent, call the police. Remember: employees of the Russian Pension Fund do not go home and your funded pension will not “burn out” or “reset to zero”.

Method 2

Very often, stores do not provide loans for the purchase of small equipment without consent to transfer pension savings to any non-state pension fund. They give different reasons: for example, without this it will not be possible to quickly obtain a loan.

However, there are often cases when people did not sign anything at all, but received “chain letters” from the Pension Fund of Russia. This happens when copies of your documents are taken during the loan application process. These copies fall into the hands of fraudsters who falsify the documents necessary to transfer funds, including your signature.

What to do: if one of the conditions for granting a loan is the transfer of pension savings, and you do not want to transfer them anywhere, we advise you to find another organization to apply for a loan. If possible, do not leave copies of documents in order to avoid fraudulent activities after applying for a loan. If you discover that your funds were transferred using forged documents (including your signature), be sure to contact the Pension Fund and law enforcement agencies!

Method 3

When preparing any documents (when receiving a loan, purchasing equipment, obtaining services, etc.), scammers do not give the entire agreement on the transfer of pension savings for signature, but only its second page. However, it is hidden in a pile of other papers and is not dated. After signing the required page, it is attached to the contract and scammers will be able to use such a document in the future.

What to do: There is only one piece of advice - carefully read everything you are going to sign. Only your own attentiveness will save you from the actions of scammers.

Method 4

Job seekers often turn to recruitment agencies for help in finding employment. Here they are faced with the unpleasant opportunity of transferring their pension savings. Fraudsters work according to two schemes: in the first case, the applicant signs an agreement, discreetly placed in a pile of papers; in the second case, the applicant is guaranteed a job if he transfers his pension savings to the desired NPF. As a rule, in neither case does a person get a job.

What to do: as with the previous method, only your own attentiveness can save you. If you are assured that you will get a job only after transferring pension savings, contact another recruitment agency that does not offer this kind of service.

Press service

Branches of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation

for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic

Nalchik, st. Chernyshevsky 181 "a",

Facts of the case.
A situation from which no one is immune: you received a notification from a non-state pension fund that it has taken control of the funded part of the pension and until that moment you did not even suspect the existence of this fund.

One of my clients found himself in this situation.

To begin with, of course, they sent a claim to this pension fund with a notification that he did not sign anything and if the money is not returned to the Pension Fund, there will be a trial.

The only reaction was a call in which a representative of the fund clarified some details and no settlement proposals were received at that time.

Our legal position.

They went to court with quite interesting demands (I even find it difficult to imagine how they would fulfill it).

Along with the usual demand that the transaction be declared invalid (he did not sign the agreement with the fund), the following demands were also stated:

1) Recognition of actions related to the processing of personal data as illegal

In accordance with Art. 17 of the Federal Law “On Personal Data”, the subject of personal data has the right to appeal against the actions or inaction of the operator in court, including against illegal processing of personal data.

2) Illegal inaction of the defendant in the form of failure to provide the plaintiff with the information provided for in paragraph 3 of Art. 18 of the Federal Law “On Personal Data”

In accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 18 of the Federal Law “On Personal Data”, in cases where personal data was not received from the subject of personal data, except in cases where personal data was provided to the operator on the basis of federal law or if personal data is publicly available, Before processing such personal data, the operator is obliged to provide the personal data subject with the following information:

1) name (last name, first name, patronymic) and address of the operator or his representative;

2) the purpose of processing personal data and its legal basis;

3) intended users of personal data;

4) the rights of the subject of personal data established by this Federal Law.

3) Compensation for moral damages for illegal processing of personal data.

In accordance with Art. 17 Federal Law “On Personal Data” dated July 27, 2006 N 152-FZ if the subject of personal data believes that the operator is processing his personal data in violation of the requirements of this Federal Law or otherwise violates his rights and freedoms, the subject of personal data has the right to appeal the actions or inaction of the operator in court.

The subject of personal data has the right to protect his rights and legitimate interests, including compensation for losses and (or) compensation for moral damage in court.

4) Judicial penalties in geometric progression.

In accordance with clause 1. Protection of the rights of the creditor under the obligation

1. If the debtor fails to fulfill an obligation, the creditor has the right to demand in court that the obligation be fulfilled in kind, unless otherwise provided by this Code, other laws or an agreement or follows from the essence of the obligation. The court, at the request of the creditor, has the right to award a sum of money in his favor (clause 1 of Article 330) in the event of non-execution of the said judicial act in an amount determined by the court on the basis of the principles of fairness, proportionality and the inadmissibility of profiting from illegal or dishonest behavior (clause 4 of Article 1).

I already had positive judicial practice regarding the illegal processing of personal data, recovery of moral damages for processing and collection of legal penalties in geometric progression, but there these claims were considered in different cases.

In this case, I was interested in trying new combined methods of protecting civil rights.

Result.

After a couple of days of filing the claim, the defendant got in touch and learned that we had gone to court and asked to look at the statement of claim. The amount of compensation that satisfied my client was paid within 24 hours.

The court has not yet even reached the deadline for accepting this claim.

The court did not accept the claim for proceedings, sending us to the place of registration of the defendant.

Although in this case, by virtue of clause 6, claims for the restoration of pension rights can also be brought to the court at the plaintiff’s place of residence and by virtue of clause 6.1, claims for the protection of the rights of the subject of personal data may also be presented to the court at the plaintiff’s place of residence.

Olesya Fedorova, lawyer, CJSC "Capital Group"

[email protected]

Taking into account the number and completeness of documents that need to be submitted to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the PF) or another body authorized to make a decision on issuing a pension, the numerous requirements of such bodies for reporting/correcting/replacing provided documents and the actual time frame for consideration of the issue of granting a pension ( from the moment you submit documents until you receive the money), the desire to receive a pension is quite understandable. And given the lengthy bureaucratic procedures associated with receiving a pension, the purpose of which is clear to few people, the desire to avoid red tape and promptly receive a pension (to which most citizens applying for it actually have the right) forces some citizens to part with significant sums.

Thus, according to ITAR-TASS data dated June 15, 2014, a Pension Fund employee was detained in North Ossetia, suspected of issuing fictitious pensions to citizens. According to the investigation, at least 300 citizens of the republic received illegal pensions, their total amount is more than 100 million rubles. A criminal case has been initiated under the article “fraud”. During the investigation, it was established that the amount of the bribe for obtaining a fictitious pension reached 100,000 rubles.

However, the courts regard as fraud not only such high-profile and multimillion-dollar cases, but also the concealment or failure by citizens to provide information affecting the size and payment of pensions or other government benefits. Most of the actions that constitute fraud are committed due to the inattention of citizens and the clear conviction that the obligation assigned to them to inform the pension fund about changes in information affecting the amount and the very fact of payment of the pension is carried out at the request of the pension recipient.

Thus, under Part 1 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code), a student expelled from the university, who received a survivor’s pension and did not inform the Pension Fund about the termination of her studies at the university, was sentenced to 80 hours of compulsory labor with compensation for damage caused to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

“The court of first instance correctly established that the defendant’s intent was aimed at stealing someone else’s property through abuse of trust for selfish reasons; she was aware of the illegal nature of her actions. For the purpose of stealing funds belonging to the department of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation in the Kosinsky district, being expelled from the institute, she did not report to the pension fund the occurrence of circumstances leading to the termination of payment of a pension in the event of the loss of a breadwinner, and continued to receive a pension from January 2011 to July 2011 year, disposed of funds at her own discretion, causing damage in the total amount of 34,517 rubles.”

The court considered these actions to constitute fraud (cassation ruling of the Perm Regional Court from02/22/2012 in case No. 22-1069).

The defendant was sentenced under Part 1 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code to a suspended sentence of six months for not informing the Employment Center where she applied for unemployment benefits that she was receiving an old-age pension early. The court found that“deliberate concealment of such information and, accordingly, receiving both unemployment benefits and a labor pension at the same time constitutes a crime under Part 1 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code” (cassation ruling of the St. Petersburg City Court dated January 13, 2011 No. 22-8222/119).

However, quite often defendants are not charged under the article “fraud”; the dispute is resolved only by the recovery of illegally received amounts from them, despite the presence of elements of fraud in the actions of the defendants, similar to those described above:

The defendant was recovered from the amount of overpayments for the disability retirement pension and monthly cash payments in connection with the cancellation of the decision on disability, which the defendant did not report to the Pension Fund (appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated November 20, 2013 in case No. 11-37572);

The amount of monthly additional payments to the pension was recovered from the defendant due to the fact that these additional payments are due to non-working citizens, and the defendant carried out labor activities for several years, which he did not notify the Pension Fund about (appeal ruling of the Tyumen Regional Court dated 05/11/2012 in case No. 33-1928 /2012);

The survivor's pension received was recovered from the defendant. The defendant received this pension as a disabled member of the deceased’s family caring for a child under 14 years of age. The defendant was the ex-wife of the deceased, but did not provide a divorce certificate when applying for a pension. The fact of living together with her ex-husband after the divorce, being dependent on him and raising his children were not recognized by the court as evidence by which the defendant could be classified as “family members”, and therefore receiving a survivor’s pension was declared unlawful (cassation ruling of the Supreme Court of the Udmurt Republic dated November 15, 2010 in case No. 33-3726).

In addition to the above illegal actions committed by ordinary citizens, the transfer of pension savings from a state pension fund or a non-state pension fund (NPF) chosen by a citizen to other NPFs without the consent of the citizen has recently become very popular.

As a rule, a citizen learns about such a transfer from PF notifications, which inform that, based on the citizen’s application, which he did not personally sign, his pension savings were transferred to a non-state pension fund. NPFs usually refer to the unlawful actions of their agents who directly concluded contracts. In 2010-2011, seven criminal cases were initiated against fraudulent agents, six of them received suspended sentences for signature forgery, and one was sentenced to imprisonment. In the same 2011, the Pension Fund terminated transfer agency agreements with NPF Norilsk Nickel, Renaissance Life and Pensions and Blagosostoyanie. The reason for the termination of these agreements was numerous appeals from citizens to the Pension Fund with complaints about the illegal transfer of their funded part of their labor pension from the Pension Fund to the above-mentioned non-state pension funds.

As practice shows, the illegality of a transfer to a non-state pension fund is easily proven, contracts on compulsory pension insurance with such non-state pension funds are recognized as not concluded, the courts oblige the non-state pension fund to return the plaintiffs’ savings to the previous fund (appeal ruling of the Ulyanovsk Regional Court dated March 11, 2014 in case No. 33-623/2014; appeal ruling of the Volgograd Regional Court dated September 11, 2013 in case No. 33-10114/2013; appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated June 14, 2012 in case No. 11-9775).

Moral damages in the above cases are not recovered. When refusing to satisfy claims for moral damages, the courts indicate (including in the judicial acts mentioned above) the following:

« The principles of compensation for moral damage come down to the following: moral damage is compensated in cases of violation or encroachment on the personal non-material benefits (rights) of citizens; As a general rule, compensation for moral damage is allowed if the causer is at fault.

Moral damage caused by actions (inaction) that violate the property rights of a citizen is subject to compensation in cases provided for by law (clause 2 art. 1099 Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The legislation on compulsory pension insurance does not contain any indication of the possibility of compensation for moral damage caused by the actions of non-state pension funds to transfer a citizen’s savings».

The bodies themselves authorized to make decisions on issuing pensions (PF, military commissariat, etc.) were also found to be committing illegal actions with pensions, for example, in cases related to the transfer of pensions abroad to citizens who went there or their payment on the territory of the Russian Federation .

Thus, the military commissariat of the Astrakhan region, considering the plaintiff who had gone abroad dead, stopped paying him a pension, and the entire pension not received by the plaintiff, which the latter did not withdraw from his account due to the fact that he was saving money to buy housing, was written off from this account to the federal budget in connection with the death of the plaintiff. As evidence of the plaintiff's death, the commissariat cited the following: the plaintiff did not appear when called to the military commissariat, according to the address information service, he was discharged at his place of residence based on a court decision, he had not received a pension since September 2002, there was no information about his whereabouts. In addition, the plaintiff did not provide annual information about being alive.

The court overturned the lower court's decision to refuse to satisfy the plaintiff's demands, recognizing the actions of the military commissariat as illegal. The court pointed out that there was no evidence to support the information about the plaintiff’s death, and the facts listed by the commissariat were not relevant to the circumstances confirming the opposite. Providing information about being alive is necessary in the case of transfer of a pension outside the Russian Federation, while the plaintiff did not raise the question of this, he did not submit an application for transfer of a pension abroad.

In addition, the case file contains no evidence that the funds debited from the plaintiff’s account were transferred to the federal budget. The extract from the personal deposit account presented in the case file confirms not the transfer of funds to the federal budget, but the transfer from one current account to another, which gives the plaintiff the right to seek judicial protection with claims against the bank for unjust enrichment (cassation ruling of the Astrakhan Regional Court dated 12/28/2011in case No. 33-4052/2011).

With reference to the legislation of the USSR, which prohibits the payment of pensions to citizens of the USSR who left for permanent residence abroad, the courts reject claims for the payment of pensions to emigrants whose pensions were assigned in accordance with the legislation of the USSR. However, a number of applicants (hereinafter referred to as the Applicants) were awarded such payments by the courts of first instance.

Subsequently, the Pension Fund, as a party to the case, appealed to the competent regional courts with supervisory complaints against the decisions that had entered into force in favor of the Applicants. The presidiums of the regional courts upheld the complaints, overturned the decisions and rejected the Applicants' claims. The Presidiums considered that the applicable legislation of the USSR, on the basis of which the pensions were assigned, did not provide for the possibility of continuing their payment to the Applicants since they had left the country. According to their interpretationresolutions of the Constitutional Court of June 15, 1998, payments were subject to renewal only on the condition that pensions were assigned in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, and not the USSR. The Presidiums accordingly considered that there was no basis in national legislation for awarding the applicants the payments calculated under USSR legislation. 11/29/2006 atdefinitionNo. 85-B06-13, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation indicated that persons who received pensions in accordance with the legislation of the USSR (except for disability pensions due to work injury, occupational disease and the loss of a breadwinner) and who left for permanent residence outside the Russian Federation, do not have the right to maintain and receive a previously assigned pension.

Thus, the Russian Federation has established the practice of refusing to pay such pensions to applicants who went abroad, whose pensions were assigned in accordance with the legislation of the USSR.

The mentioned Applicants appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which, in its ruling dated 07/09/2009 (case “Tarnopolskaya and others (T arnopolskaya and others) v. Russian Federation") held the following: having established that in relation to all the Applicants court decisions were made in their favor, which were subsequently overturned by way of supervisory review, the European Court came to the conclusion of a violationparagraph 1 of article 6 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 04.11.1950,Article 1 Protocol No. 1 thereto, since the court decisions in favor of the Applicants were overturned in a supervisory procedure. Since the Applicants did not receive the funds that they rightfully expected to receive in accordance with these decisions that entered into force in the period prior to their reversal, there is a causal connection between the established violations and the Applicants’ claims for material damage, and therefore, in this part, the Applicants’ claims are subject to satisfaction. The demands for payment of sums of money, which the Applicants were counting on after the court decisions were overturned, have not been satisfied.

Considering the plaintiff to be permanently residing on the territory of Ukraine, the military commissariat of the Omsk region stopped paying the pension to the latter, recommending that he apply for a pension at a new place of residence in a foreign country. The court satisfied the plaintiff’s demands for payment of the amounts due to him, pointing out thatpubliclyarticle 1 Agreement of the CIS countries of March 13, 1992 “On guarantees of the rights of citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the field of pension provision” pension provision of citizens of member states of thisagreementscarried out according to the legislation of the state in whose territory they live. According toarticle 7 of this agreement when relocating a pensioner within the participating statesagreementspayment of the pension at the previous place of residence is terminated if a pension of the same type is provided for by the legislation of the state at the new place of residence of the pensioner. The plaintiff did not apply to change citizenship and receive a pension in Ukraine. Under such circumstances, the court of first instance came to a reasonable conclusion that the plaintiff did not move to permanent residence in Ukraine, therefore, the decision of the military commissariat of the Omsk region to terminate the payment of the plaintiff’s pension is illegal. The mere facts of the plaintiff’s residence on the territory of Ukraine and temporary absence from the place of registration in Russia cannot indicate a change in his permanent place of residence and serve as a basis for limiting his right to receive an assigned pension (appeal ruling of the Omsk Regional Court dated February 19, 2014 in case No. 33-843/2014).

Thus, the payment of pensions when a citizen leaves for a long time abroad in most cases becomes problematic. Government bodies often refuse to transfer pensions abroad or stop paying them on the territory of the Russian Federation in connection with the departure of a pensioner, since they often link the right to receive a pension with such a condition as permanent residence in Russia. However, this approach violates the provisions of Part 1 of Article 39 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantee social security for age and disability in accordance with the law, i.e. violates the right to receive labor pensions by citizens of Russia, and therefore, when appealing such decisions, the claims of pensioner applicants must be satisfied.

Situations when a citizen understands that he was transferred to a new NPF without consent, based on a “false” application, occur quite often. Citizens' savings are transferred to other organizations with lower interest rates or bad reviews.

Most often, people learn about such a translation by accident. And the question immediately arises: what to do if the money was transferred to the NPF fraudulently? More on this later.

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The process of transferring the funded part of the pension

A transfer to a non-state pension fund without the client’s consent is a violation of the law, because according to the latest reforms, citizens have the opportunity to manage pension savings independently, and not under pressure from third parties.

One of the options for such management is the transfer of funds to the Non-State Pension Fund, which became especially important in 2014, when the Pension Fund of Russia officially stopped the formation of savings. Now the money is automatically sent to the insurance part of the pension.

The advantage of pension savings over insurance contributions is that this money will become an addition to the pension, which is what most citizens are interested in. This is why it became possible to deposit additional funds into your account in order to increase your income in the future.

The convenience of such a pension reform lies in the fact that NPFs transfer all savings by inheritance. That is, in the event of a sudden death of the insurer, the funds will go to his relatives and will not disappear.

There are no mandatory requirements for transferring funds to NPFs in the legislation. Thanks to this, citizens have the opportunity to take advantage of a number of benefits:

1. The opportunity to significantly increase your pension savings in comparison with the conditions offered by the state pension fund.
2. Account holders can independently track the movement of their funds, for example, through special online services.
3. The conclusion of an agreement for the transfer of funds is carried out only once; there is no need to re-issue documents every year.
4. All funds stored in NPF accounts are insured. If the company goes bankrupt, all money will be returned to the owners.
5. If the applicant is not satisfied with the fund for any reason, he has the right to renew the contract at any time.

When is it possible to transfer a pension without notifying the owner?

After the adoption of a legislative act on the mandatory transfer of part of the pension from the state fund, NPFs became more active and began to act aggressively. For example, most of these firms hire agents to represent their interests and “sell” a new contract to the hapless client.

Most often, scammers act this way: the agent rings the doorbell of the apartment and asks the tenant to show it.

In this case, the following arguments are used:

1. Preparation of various documents, without filling out which the percentage of growth of the funded part may decrease, or such interest will not be accrued.
2. Conducting a population census to draw up inserts that will contain information about valid SNILS.

There are rarely cases when a person is simply asked to sign a form about transferring to another fund.

Despite the fact that the Pension Fund of Russia has repeatedly made statements that its employees do not go door to door, there are citizens who fall for the bait of such scammers.

Another way in which a transfer to a non-state pension fund is carried out without the client’s consent is through paperwork at a recruitment agency. Often, along with a contract for the provision of services, a person is given an application to transfer pension savings to a non-state pension fund.

How to solve the problem of transferring funds to a non-state pension fund

What to do if there is a transfer to a non-state pension fund without consent?

There are 5 ways you can solve this problem:

1. First of all, you need to go to the nearest office of the state Pension Fund and write a statement about the illegal transfer of funds to the NPF. During the calendar month, the department in each region collects such notifications, after which it sends them to the central Pension Fund to resolve the conflict.
2. The second option is to send a written complaint to the organization where the funds were illegally transferred. The claim reflects the client’s disagreement with the transfer of savings and the loss of income from investing this part of the pension.
   In this case, the citizen has the right to demand the provision of certified copies of documents on the basis of which his pension savings were transferred to the new organization.
3. The next way is to file a complaint about the actions of the fund with the Central Bank, which regulates and controls the activities of such organizations in the field of compulsory pension insurance.
4. Another popular way is to go to court. If the applicant manages to prove that his funds were transferred to the NPF without his knowledge and consent, then the contract will be declared invalid, and all accumulated funds will be sent again to the previous insurance company. The transfer is carried out within 30 days from the date the court decision enters into force.
5. The best option is to submit an application to transfer your savings to the previous fund. This must be done before the end of this year.

Responsibility for illegal translation

Wrongful transfer to a non-state pension fund without consent has become such a big problem that a bill has been passed providing for liability for such actions.

According to the provisions of this act, violators are held accountable in the form of a fine, the amount of which depends on who the culprit is:

1. The organization is subject to a fine of 700,000 rubles.
2. For an official, the fine is 30,000 rubles.
3. For a repeated offense committed by an official, the penalty is increased to 50,000 rubles. or removal from office for a period of up to 2 years.

According to the requirements of Russian legislation, if an organization provides false information about the insurer to the state Pension Fund, which is why an unlawful transfer of funds to a non-state pension fund occurs, this legal entity is subject to a restriction on concluding new insurance contracts.

The Pension Fund itself should make such a proposal; there is no point in the victim making a similar request to law enforcement agencies, since this is not within their competence, because the fraudulent actions of a non-governmental organization do not have any signs of a crime provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Deception cannot be a basis for bringing the perpetrator to criminal liability, since there is no real damage to the applicant’s finances. After all, no one appropriates funds; in practice, only the transfer of the right to preserve them occurs.

How to avoid falling for scammers

There are several ways in which a person can preserve his rights and savings.

1. First of all, you should not show your documents to anyone. Representatives of state insurance companies do not go door to door and do not offer their services, and large non-state pension funds also do not need such intrusive and illegal advertising of their services.
2. You cannot sign contracts with unfamiliar company representatives.
3. If a person is concerned about the safety of his pension savings, he can contact the Pension Fund to write an application to keep all contributions unchanged for the next year.
   If there is such a request from the insurer, the funds cannot be transferred, even if a new application for such a desire is submitted.

If a person nevertheless signed such a statement, and his funds were transferred to the account of a Non-State Pension Fund, it is necessary to take all measures as soon as possible to correct this error.

Let us remind you that it is possible to transfer savings without loss more often than once every 5 years, otherwise the future pensioner will suffer damage in the form of loss of investment income. In 2019-2020, transferring pension savings without loss is beneficial only for those citizens who last wrote an application to choose an insurer in 2014, and this application was considered positively by the Pension Fund. In all other cases, the transfer threatens the loss of investment income for at least the current year.

In 2019-2020, the transfer of savings to NPFs can only be carried out by personally contacting the Pension Fund office or through the State Services portal. Now neither state funds nor Multifunctional Centers accept such applications.

Dear readers!

We describe typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique and requires individual legal assistance.

Recently, the situation with transfers of pension savings of Russians between non-state pension funds without their knowledge has worsened. In 2017, 2.6 thousand people complained to the Central Bank about this.

This situation is associated with the ongoing “moratorium” on accumulation. Non-state pension funds cannot attract “fresh” funds, so some of them are trying to use illegal methods to replenish their client base at the expense of people who have savings in other non-state pension funds.

Citizens will learn about the transfer from a notice from the old fund about the early termination of the contract or from a letter from the new fund confirming receipt of money. A person who is presented with a fait accompli on such an important issue naturally feels deceived. Moreover, the matter is not only in the moral side of the issue: when transferring funds, investment income is lost. You can change NPF without loss only once every 5 years. In case of early transfer, the calculation is made “at par”, the interest accrued over the past years remains in the old fund.

How to act in such cases?

According to Advisor to the President of the NAPF Valery Vinogradov, first you need to send a request to the NPPF so that they provide certified copies of the agreement and application for the transfer of pension savings. These documents will help clarify the situation; from them it will be possible to determine where the transfer order came from and who signed it. If there is a fake signature on the application, you can safely defend your rights, including in court.

Sometimes the problem is resolved at the pre-trial stage. NPF managers do not like scandals; if they see that the client is acting competently, they usually agree to return the money and compensate for losses from the loss of investment income.

When you can't reach an agreement, you have to go to court. Samples of claims to invalidate contracts are posted on www.napf.ru and all-pf.com. By law, a fund can be held liable for the actions of its agents. That's just the application of Art. 15.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses is complicated by the need to prove the fact of forgery of the signature on the application.

Central Bank comment

If it turns out that the agreement on the transfer of funds was concluded behind the back of the victim or he signed the document under the influence of false information, then it is quite possible to avoid material damage. Much depends on how long ago all this was formalized:

1. If the agreements with the old and new funds were executed within the same year, it is necessary to write to the new NPF a request to invalidate the agreement. You also need to contact the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation before December 31 with an application to change the insurer.

2. If the existence of a new agreement is discovered after a year, it will be more difficult to resolve the situation. The contract will become invalid only after a corresponding court decision. When this issue is successfully resolved, you must contact the Pension Fund with a request to return the savings to the previous fund.