Skip to main content

Russian Court: Bitcoin Theft Not a Crime

A Russian district court has dismissed bitcoin theft as a crime since cryptocurrency is not regulated in Russia and there is no legal status for bitcoin.The accused were found guilty, sentenced to prison, and ordered to return only the fiat money stolen — not cryptocurrencies.
St. Petersburg’s Petrogradsky District Court has announced the verdict in a theft case involving bitcoin filed in December, the joint press service of the judicial system of St. Petersburg announced on Tuesday.
The two accused, Peter Piron and Yevgeny Prigozhin, disguised as officers of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) in 2018, forced the plaintiff to transfer cash and cryptocurrencies to them. Under the threat of torture, the cryptocurrency owner transferred five million rubles and cryptocurrencies, including 99.7035 bitcoins. The BTC was worth more than 48 million rubles ($680,640) based on the exchange rate on June 3, 2018, the court announcement details. Currently, this amount of BTC is worth about $908,024. The other cryptocurrencies amounted to approximately 7 million rubles, bringing the total loss suffered by the plaintiff to more than 60 million rubles.
The victim sought the return of all properties stolen. The court admitted that cryptocurrencies were transferred to the accused under threat. However, citing information from the central bank, the Bank of Russia, and the criminal code, the court concluded:
Cryptocurrency [theft] is not a crime against property. Due to the lack of legal status, it is not possible to recognize it as an object of civil law.
“This type of virtual money does not fall into any category and is not a recognized means of payment in the territory of the Russian Federation. The legislator has assigned it to surrogates of funds,” the court added.

Prigozhin was sentenced to eight years and Prion 10 years in a maximum-security prison. They have also been ordered to return the five million rubles, but the cryptocurrencies worth 55 million rubles at the time of the theft were excluded from the verdict.
Russia still has no cryptocurrency regulation even though a bill on digital financial assets was submitted to the State Duma back in March 2018. Recently, a bill was proposed to outlaw cryptocurrencies with a jail term, but several ministries do not support this bill.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Winner of the Democratic Debate: President Obama   More Sanders Snarks as Democratic Debate Gets Heated Democratic Candidates Court Black Voters at Debate Clinton and Sanders Walk a Careful Line on Women at Debate There were only two Democrats on the debate stage in Milwaukee on Thursday night, but they should have brought a third podium for President Obama. Coming back from a landslide defeat in the New Hampshire primary, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doggedly criticized Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on areas where he’d split with Obama while duct-taping herself to the President’s legacy on issues as varied as foreign policy , health care and Wall Street . Sanders, for his part, did his best to hold his ground, justifying his criticism of the President and presenting himself as a change agent while pointing out Clinton’s own differences with Obama. Their heated exchanges over Obama’s legacy reflected how the President has b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The country’s problem is our problem- Buhari

Nigeria President Muhammad Buhari gave this reminder on Tuesday in Abuja while breaking his Ramadan fast with a delegation of Islamic clerics. Mr. President said that Nigerians do not have any other country to call theirs except Nigeria and should therefore work and pray for it to prosper.
Post a Comment
Read more

Oscar Pistorius Will Be Sentenced for Murder After Dismissal of his Appeal

A lawyer for Oscar Pistorius says South Africa’s highest court has dismissed the former track star’s appeal of his murder conviction. The ruling by the Constitutional Court on Thursday clears the way for a judge to sentence Pistorius for murder at a hearing scheduled for April 18. Defense lawyer Andrew Fawcett confirmed the Constitutional Court’s decision and said: “We’ll proceed to the sentencing.” Pistorius, who killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home in 2013, had appealed to the Constitutional Court, saying another court erred when it overturned a manslaughter conviction and declared the Olympic athlete guilty of murder. The minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that sentence for what the law describes as exceptional circumstances. Pistorius is currently under house arrest. [ Time ]
Post a Comment
Read more