Overview
- Security services from the FSB and the Interior Ministry carried out coordinated raids on nine unregistered crypto exchange desks in Moscow City and detained more than 20 people, authorities said Friday.
- Officials say the desks acted as conversion points that converted money stolen in telephone scams into cryptocurrency and moved the funds abroad, and investigators opened cases under Part 4 of Article 159 for large-scale fraud.
- Investigators allege victims were directed by call centers to hand over cash or buy crypto at the desks, with at least one victim reported to have lost 144 million rubles in a case cited by authorities.
- The raids come days after President Vladimir Putin signed a new crypto framework that requires exchanges to register and imposes anti-money-laundering checks, with main provisions due to take effect on September 1.
- The move tightens scrutiny on where cash enters the crypto system, raises compliance and criminal-risk questions for intermediaries, and could make it harder for victims to recover funds once cash is converted to cryptocurrency.