On December 13, 2011, the President of Ukraine has signed the Law on Amendments to Certain Legislation Acts on Humanization of Responsibility for Economic Crimes, which became effective since January 18, 2012. This Law, among other things, establishes decriminalization of particular economic crimes by changing them to the administrative offences that now are to be envisaged by the Code on Administrative Offences of Ukraine. More specifically, the crimes removed from the Criminal Code of Ukraine include, inter alia, avoidance of the profit return obtained in a foreign currency, illegal opening or using the foreign currency accounts abroad, concealment of financial insolvency, fictitious bankruptcy etc.

The Law also substituted criminal sanctions (i.e. imprisonment) for committing particular economic crimes with fines. This, in particular, relates to the following crimes: illegal activities with documents for money transfer, payment cards and other means required to access the bank accounts; tax evasion; illegal disclosure of information constituting the commercial and bank secrecy; fictitious business activities etc.

The Law also introduces changes to some procedural rules applied in criminal proceedings (i.e. detention, preventive measures, etc).