USING PAID SERVICES IN ONLINE VIDEO GAMES AS A WAY TO CONCEAL CORRUPTION OFFENCES

Abstract

There are numerous precedents in legal practice of concealing the fact of giving and/or receiving an unlawful benefit in order to avoid punishment for a corruption offence. The need to identify and analyse existing and potentially possible ways of concealing corruption is the basis of preventive anti-corruption activities, especially when implemented in the context of civil and sports law. The purpose of the study is to analyse the process of concealing the fact of obtaining (receiving) an unlawful benefit through the use of online video games and their paid services for corrupt purposes. In the course of the analysis of the main problems related to the prevention and investigation of crimes committed in this way, the author established that there are no transactions between the parties to a corruption-related offence when exchanging game items on the Steam online service for the purpose of providing (receiving) an unlawful benefit. It is proved that within the framework of the open proceedings in the case of a corruption offence, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, the main problem for law enforcement agencies will be the lack of access to the exchange history of suspects in the Steam online service and interaction with the owner of this service – Valve, which is guided by the legislation of the State of Washington (USA) in its economic activities. A significant obstacle to establishing the fact of a corruption offence was identified in the deletion of personal Steam accounts by the suspects without the consent of the owner of the online service. As a result, the exchange history is completely deleted as the main evidence, and the restoration of all operations is possible only if Valve is involved as a witness in criminal proceedings, which is complicated by the international nature of the unlawful act. The author substantiates the complexity of the procedure for proving a corruption offence in court, since it is not known whether evidence in the form of correspondence between the parties to an offence in the online service Steam or any other online video game which is not a social network or email service will be accepted. Also, proving the authenticity of such evidence may be questionable due to the possibility of its adjustment and forgery using the functionality of the Steam online service. The issues raised in the article open up new horizons for improving anti-corruption legislation and procedure, and therefore are the prospect of further research by the authors.