Russia’s number of court cases involving cryptocurrency increased by 40% in 2021

Most of the crimes are related to drug trafficking, money laundering, and gambling

10.06.2022 - 07:25

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What’s new? In Russia, the number of legal proceedings related to cryptocurrency and mining increased by 40% in 2021. A total of 954 criminal cases, 365 civil cases, 141 bankruptcy cases, and 71 administrative cases were initiated. Most of the crypto crimes are related to drug trafficking — 738, followed by money laundering and gambling, Izvestia reports, citing a study by cybersecurity firm RTM Group.

Izvestia’s material

More details about the study. In 2021 citizens of the Russian Federation were charged 61,5 million Russian rubles (RUB) for the illegal use of electricity for mining. There were nine such in total cases during this period. In April 2022, a miner from Irkutsk was ordered to pay 28,6 million RUB for industrial-scale use of energy resources. According to the case file, the monthly energy consumption at the miner’s land site was around 800 000 kWh.

Among civil lawsuits, cases of unjust enrichment in the acquisition of cryptocurrency are the most common — 42 cases. Usually, in these proceedings, the accuser claims that they were charged less than they expected when purchasing a digital asset. In such cases, refusals of recovery are five times more common than satisfactory decisions. Typically, the court argues that cryptocurrency transactions are a high-risk area.

In June, the US Federal Trade Commission reported that crypto criminals earned a total of $1 billion since the beginning of 2021. There are about 46 000 people affected by the scammers’ activities. About $575 million were earned by scammers offering high returns to inexperienced investors. The second most popular method of fraud is extortion through dating sites, so the criminals earned about $185 million.

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