The trial for a significant Bitcoin theft is about to start in Russia, and the defendants are accused of stealing the digital currency valued at millions of dollars
The accused are facing charges of fraud and money laundering, and if convicted, could face up to 10 years in prison
Two residents of the Russian city of Tomsk are set to stand trial for a "large-scale robbery" involving the theft of millions of rubles worth of cryptocurrency from a local miner. According to authorities, the digital coins were stolen from the victim at gunpoint, and both perpetrators are currently in custody. This brazen act of theft has sent shockwaves throughout the city, as the perpetrators face the consequences of their actions.
The Kirovsky Court of Tomsk is set to try two men for their attack on a cryptocurrency miner from the Siberian city. The perpetrators were able to extort coins worth more than 360 million rubles (over $4.8 million) from the victim in October 2021.
The assailants threatened the miner with an object resembling a gun and forced him to log into his account on a crypto exchange and transfer 86 BTC from a wallet that contained 90 BTC.
Russian law enforcement managed to track and detain one of the suspects in St. Petersburg. He has since pleaded guilty and returned 35 million rubles (close to $479,000 at current exchange rates) of the stolen digital cash. The second man was arrested later.
The regional prosecutor’s office has charged the attackers with “robbery committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale” under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and they face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million rubles.
Unfortunately, attacks against people owning and earning cryptocurrency have been on the rise in Russia. In July 2021, armed robbers plundered a large mining farm near Moscow, stealing dozens of video cards used to mint digital currencies. Additionally, a crypto trader in the Russian capital was robbed of $1 million in tether last year. The Kirovsky Court of Tomsk will soon decide the fate of the two men accused of the heinous crime against the cryptocurrency miner.
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