Stolen crypto assets worth a billion rubles were arrested in Russia for the first time

The decision of the St. Petersburg District Court for the first time allowed the investigation to arrest the digital assets of a citizen suspected of theft.  The court concerned Ethereum cryptocurrency (“ether”, ETH), placed on 24 wallets.  Considering that the very concept of “digital currency” is still missing in the legislation of the country, the court decision called crypto money “other property”.

Sources say that the accused managed to break a digital wallet of a citizen who transferred 7,000 “ethers” to it. After the tokens disappeared, the victim of the crime turned to the police with a statement. The police eventually launched proceedings under two criminal articles: on the theft of property on an especially large scale (in terms of rubles, we are talking about 2 billion) and on illegal access to digital information.

The investigator managed to establish that the alleged thief had about 4,000 ETH in his 24 virtual wallets, which is more than a billion rubles. How the accused disposed of the rest of the stolen assets is unknown. It is assumed that the digital money could have been spent.

The current decision of the court, according to the experts, may become a kind of precedent for Russian judicial practice.

The court for the first time considered that the main difference between cryptocurrency and conventional (fiat) money is only the way it appears.

Otherwise, such assets can also be used as a material value, act as a means of payment or be used for investment activities. Thus, nothing prevents judges from qualifying cryptocurrency as other property in accordance with the note to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.