The article considers one of the most complex criminal law norms on officeholder crimes – diversion of public funds (Article 285.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The author uses the interdisciplinary methodology of norm analysis and explores the main categories fixed in the disposition – expenditure, public funds, recipient of public funds. There are four stages in the study – the study of the lexical meaning of the category, the definition of its meaning in budget legislation (regulatory), in administrative (the first level of protective legislation), and at the final stage determines the meaning of the term in regards to criminal law sense. The disposition of Article 285.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has a blank character and in order to establish its content, it is necessary to refer to the norms of primary legislation. The research conducted by the author allows us to conclude about the intersectoral belonging of the norms of diversion of public funds, including in terms of the categorical apparatus. Thus, by studying the three system–forming categories of the corpus delicti provided for in Article 285.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - expenditure of public funds, and the recipient of public funds revealed the inconsistency of the criminal law norm under consideration with the principles of legality, justice, equality. To solve this problem, the author proposes to amend art. 285.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by including in it indications of the possibility of committing a crime by an officeholder recipient of funds from the budget, as well as to clarify the concept of "expenditure" and "public funds" in the Ruling of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.