Three businessmen accused of illegal trading more than 500 million rubles. Kostroma's police detained three men who illegally exchanged bitcoins. Irina Volk, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that men accused of illegal banking activities.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the defendants illegally cashed more than 500 million rubles. Against them opened criminal case as "Illegal banking activity", and now they released on their own recognizance.
In order to transfer and convert the cryptocurrency, the fraudsters issued for their relatives more than 300 banking cards and sim-cards, the report said.
According to the head of the public organization "Roskomsvoboda" Artem Kozlyuk, this is the first criminal case for bitcoin trading. He is not aware of similar cases. Previously, Russian courts blocked bitcoin-exchanges and sites where it was possible to transfer the digital currency to ordinary currency, adds Kozlyuk.
Bitcoin is just a tool that can be used both legally and illegally, says cofounder Bitcoin Fund Anatoly Knyazev.
He believes if Russia legals cryptocurrency transfers, people who wanted to sell bitcoins stoped to use the services of detainees.
At the moment Russia has not law that regulates cryptocurrencies, but it is in process of legalizing the transfer of bitcoin into rubles.