Russia Opens First Criminal Case Involving Bitcoin

[alyssa85]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/09/03/russia-opens-first-criminal-case-involving-bitcoin/#5c2dd77d5b6e

Last week, Russian police arrested three businessmen for illegally trading in 500 million rubles worth of bitcoin, or around $9 million worth of the crypto-currency. The arrest marks the start of the first-ever criminal case against bitcoin sales in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported on Sept. 1.  The Russian government has a balancing act to do: they want to show that crypto-currencies will not be tolerated as a money laundering unit, on one hand, while on the other hand want to show they are rolling out the welcome mat for bitcoin and similar technologies. It's the latter, or risk losing out on major, global, life changing opportunities going forward.

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs press officer, Irina Volk, the three defendants illegally cashed the millions in bitcoin and are being brought up on charges of  "Illegal Banking". Their names have been concealed. Arrests were made approximately 260 miles northeast of Moscow in the city of Kostroma. The exchange came to light after investigators found an unusual amount of activity in bank accounts stemming from 300 bank cards and sim cards used to store the digital currency. The money was being shifted into different accounts owned by family members, prosecutors believe.

They haven't bought drugs or guns - they've just been trading, and that is enough to be charged with money laundering in Russia.

[Xenoph0bia]

That's not a good news for bitcoins, it is damaging the image of the bitcoins. Bitcoins should be crime free and must be used for positive things instead of money laundering and other illegal activities.

[A1exander]

It probably was money laundering and maybe also tax evasion. On one hand, it may be bad for bitcoin's reputation, on the other - it shows that bitcoin is gaining wider and wider acception, legal or not.

[w5pn73]

More and more regulation... *sigh*

[Sir Cross]

It doesn't have to be related to drugs or guns for it to be a crime ; money laundering in itself is already a crime. I've always thought of bitcoin as one day to be abused and may be used as a means for illegal use like money laundering because its fast and easy to use. Unlike with fiat money, there's no need for it to be carried around so its easy to transfer large amounts. This kind of news brings bad publicity for bitcoin and the authority will try to prevent this from happening again.

[Juggy777]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/09/03/russia-opens-first-criminal-case-involving-bitcoin/#5c2dd77d5b6e

Last week, Russian police arrested three businessmen for illegally trading in 500 million rubles worth of bitcoin, or around $9 million worth of the crypto-currency. The arrest marks the start of the first-ever criminal case against bitcoin sales in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported on Sept. 1.  The Russian government has a balancing act to do: they want to show that crypto-currencies will not be tolerated as a money laundering unit, on one hand, while on the other hand want to show they are rolling out the welcome mat for bitcoin and similar technologies. It's the latter, or risk losing out on major, global, life changing opportunities going forward.

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs press officer, Irina Volk, the three defendants illegally cashed the millions in bitcoin and are being brought up on charges of  "Illegal Banking". Their names have been concealed. Arrests were made approximately 260 miles northeast of Moscow in the city of Kostroma. The exchange came to light after investigators found an unusual amount of activity in bank accounts stemming from 300 bank cards and sim cards used to store the digital currency. The money was being shifted into different accounts owned by family members, prosecutors believe.

They haven't bought drugs or guns - they've just been trading, and that is enough to be charged with money laundering in Russia.

I have some questions we all know Bitcoins cannot be traced to the owners, or no one can ever know who owns how much, how did these guys get caught? I remember reading two articles one where Russia welcomes Bitcoins other they are not keen, now if they say they are arrested only for trading on bitcoin that's a bad situation for Russians using bitcoins, or there is a bigger picture that we don't know? I don't think that they can be prosecuted for such petty offence or can they? This is not good for Bitcoin cause other countries may use this case as a example. Op keep positing new updates as and when you get them.

[criz2fer]

Last week, Russian police arrested three businessmen for illegally trading in 500 million rubles worth of bitcoin, or around $9 million worth of the crypto-currency. The arrest marks the start of the first-ever criminal case against bitcoin sales in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported on Sept. 1.  The Russian government has a balancing act to do: they want to show that crypto-currencies will not be tolerated as a money laundering unit, on one hand, while on the other hand want to show they are rolling out the welcome mat for bitcoin and similar technologies. It's the latter, or risk losing out on major, global, life changing opportunities going forward.

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs press officer, Irina Volk, the three defendants illegally cashed the millions in bitcoin and are being brought up on charges of  "Illegal Banking". Their names have been concealed. Arrests were made approximately 260 miles northeast of Moscow in the city of Kostroma. The exchange came to light after investigators found an unusual amount of activity in bank accounts stemming from 300 bank cards and sim cards used to store the digital currency. The money was being shifted into different accounts owned by family members, prosecutors believe.

They haven't bought drugs or guns - they've just been trading, and that is enough to be charged with money laundering in Russia.
[/quote]

Illegal trading? How come they are arrested if our transactions are anonymous? How about our trading to bittrex & poloniex, are they legal specially if we gain a lot of money? This maybe bad news not only for bitcoin but the whole crypto world. I think this include posting on social medias that they show too much money which are earned in trading. Hope this news isn't true and give more specific news and not just to come up a story

[aizen10]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/09/03/russia-opens-first-criminal-case-involving-bitcoin/#5c2dd77d5b6e

Last week, Russian police arrested three businessmen for illegally trading in 500 million rubles worth of bitcoin, or around $9 million worth of the crypto-currency. The arrest marks the start of the first-ever criminal case against bitcoin sales in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported on Sept. 1.  The Russian government has a balancing act to do: they want to show that crypto-currencies will not be tolerated as a money laundering unit, on one hand, while on the other hand want to show they are rolling out the welcome mat for bitcoin and similar technologies. It's the latter, or risk losing out on major, global, life changing opportunities going forward.

According to Ministry of Internal Affairs press officer, Irina Volk, the three defendants illegally cashed the millions in bitcoin and are being brought up on charges of  "Illegal Banking". Their names have been concealed. Arrests were made approximately 260 miles northeast of Moscow in the city of Kostroma. The exchange came to light after investigators found an unusual amount of activity in bank accounts stemming from 300 bank cards and sim cards used to store the digital currency. The money was being shifted into different accounts owned by family members, prosecutors believe.

They haven't bought drugs or guns - they've just been trading, and that is enough to be charged with money laundering in Russia.

money laundering is totally a crime, including tax evasion. this news is totally affects bitcoin community to has a bad image because from this people who can use it to illegal activity. bitcoin can transact huge amount in an instant with anonymous identity so more bad people are wise to use this to do some illegal activity. i hope the admin of bitcoin can take an action to prevent this anomaly and wont happen again.

[unamis76]

The key point here is that people arrested were apparently involved in some kind of money laundering scheme, regardless of currency. It's about time the media starts making news without trying to direct people to a certain way of thinking...

[bajing]

Not sure about the "illegal trading" part, but money laundering obviously is a crime and must be processed or government think since they have $9 million worth of the crypto-currency, some of the coins must came from criminal/illegal activity or has tainted and in blacklist.

I'm agree with you, have $9 million worth of the crypto-currency that's the huge amount, it's naturally if the government suspects them got money from money laundering moreover the money is owned by a small group, maybe if the money is owned by a company or a big a group of people, the Russian government will not suspect and investigate.

[A1exander]

I have some questions we all know Bitcoins cannot be traced to the owners, or no one can ever know who owns how much, how did these guys get caught? I remember reading two articles one where Russia welcomes Bitcoins other they are not keen, now if they say they are arrested only for trading on bitcoin that's a bad situation for Russians using bitcoins, or there is a bigger picture that we don't know? I don't think that they can be prosecuted for such petty offence or can they? This is not good for Bitcoin cause other countries may use this case as a example. Op keep positing new updates as and when you get them.

They were not just trading, they were exchanging bitcoins for cash and using literally hundreds of debit cards. There was no way to maintain anonymity. Moreover, these guys were not very secretive - they had a password written on a board in their office...

[HAARP]

These are all bad news unfortunately, China, Russia, these are the most important coin countries and all of them are starting prosecutions related to bitcoin and crypto businesses. Extremely sad for us.

[w5pn73]

I have some questions we all know Bitcoins cannot be traced to the owners, or no one can ever know who owns how much, how did these guys get caught? I remember reading two articles one where Russia welcomes Bitcoins other they are not keen, now if they say they are arrested only for trading on bitcoin that's a bad situation for Russians using bitcoins, or there is a bigger picture that we don't know? I don't think that they can be prosecuted for such petty offence or can they? This is not good for Bitcoin cause other countries may use this case as a example. Op keep positing new updates as and when you get them.

They were not just trading, they were exchanging bitcoins for cash and using literally hundreds of debit cards. There was no way to maintain anonymity. Moreover, these guys were not very secretive - they had a password written on a board in their office...

What it seems like nowadays is btc is anonymous until you want to cash out.. :/
And keep in mind just exchanging btc to fiat currency without declaring anything can be called money laundering.
Which in this case is legit I think, but I'd hardly call it money laundering when someone exchanges a few btc "off the grid".

[RomanPetrush]

Yeah, Russia is a special place. Becase there so many scams and people who would be happy to "scam you".

[chesegrinder]

this is why many country are not open into cryptocurrency as it will hide your identity and government will not benefit from it also banks. this case will surely a bad news to all bit-coiners including my self. But in my own understanding those men/family members have a back-business. I dont believe that they just Hold their coin and the coin increase the value. the report says that it was 300 banks, sim card and atm cards was use on there transaction means that they do something illegal that banks and government notice thats why they investigate about it. Maybe they are Mafia which crypto currency are now made as the method of illegal trade and payment.

[franky1]

READ THE ARTICLE GUYS

its not about holding or using bitcoin
its not about selling products for bitcoin

its about operating a FIAT money business (exchange) without a FIAT money business licence

you can be a crypto-to-srypto exchange and you can sell products for bitcoin..
but if your exchanging for fiat as the middle man.. you need a money business licence.

even facebook can break the law if it tried swapping facebook credits for rubles without a fiat licence..
and thats been the same law in existence from even before bitcoin existed.

its not about bitcoin. its about handling fiat

[johnwest]

I dont think this is the first time a case has been opened on money laundering which involves BTC. This seems to be a common thing these days in many countries, especially in third world countries where laundering is too easy. Lets see what will be the outcome of this.

[Oceat]

That's why a lot of other countries are not open to be legalized bitcoin because of this mainstream problem of cryptocurrency's 'scammer' everywhere. These guys are putting an effort to caught the attention with those people who thinks also how to get rich easily without working so much. These guys are making a bad record of bitcoin because of their acts, i hope these guys were got caught already.

[bangjoe]

The freedom to use bitcoin made some people interested in money laundering, I was surprised that the news mentioned came from Russia, because this country is an active country that uses bitcoin mainly for ponzi business.

On the other hand I am interested to see the progress of this case where the government will then do attitude towards bitcoin, whether to make strict laws like in china, or even legalize it like japan.