Crypto Bribery Cases on the Rise in Russia
Russia is seeing an increase in the number of crypto bribery cases where corrupt individuals receive payment in tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC), lawyers say.
In an interview with Svoy Kirovsky Portal, Marina Odintsova, the head of the Kirov branch of the Association of Lawyers of Russia, said there had been a rise in “non-cash” bribery in Russia in recent months.
Odintsova was answering a question about the “most common methods of transferring bribes” in Russia.
The lawyer said that there were “three” common ways to give and receive bribes. She named crypto as the first. Odintsova said:
“We have recently seen cryptocurrency involved in bribery cases. Cryptocurrency is the sector that is the least controlled by the state. And it is extremely difficult to track transfers made [using crypto]. However, it is not impossible.”
She also made note of the fact that “currently in the Moscow Oblast,” courts are “looking into the case of the largest bribe in modern Russian history.” “This case is also connected with cryptocurrency,” Odintsova noted.
Russia's foreign exchange trading is now 99.6% in yuan after sanctions forced the Moscow Exchange to halt trading in US dollars and the euro https://t.co/g4lhxEnyEN
— Bloomberg (@business) July 9, 2024
Odintsova was referring to the case of two Russian army investigators. The investigators are believed to have demanded a group of hackers pay them thousands of Bitcoin to bury their investigation.
In June this year, a Moscow Oblast court announced that two Investigative Committee staffers are the “prime suspects” in a trial that is set to begin shortly.
Prosecutors say Russian law enforcement officials were investigating the domestic arm of “an international cybercrime syndicate” named Infraud
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