In 2021, 954 criminal cases were opened, which is 40% higher than a year earlier.
The number of lawsuits related to cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges and mining has grown by one and a half times over the year, to 1531 in 2021. Most of all - 954 court cases - were initiated under criminal articles. Another quarter of proceedings (365) are in civil cases, 9% (141) are in bankruptcy, 5% (71) are administrative. Most of the crimes were related to drug trafficking, money laundering and gambling. In addition, during this period, 61 million rubles were collected from citizens for using electricity for mining, Izvestia reports.
The Ministry of Energy reported that entrepreneurs must pay for electricity at different rates than the population. According to lawyers, while digital currencies are not fully integrated into the legal field, transactions with them carry high risks.
Most often, cryptocurrency appears in criminal cases related to drug trafficking: people resort to this method of payment to maintain anonymity, the study notes. In 2021, 738 such cases were opened. Other criminal proceedings include the legalization and laundering of money (mostly obtained from the sale of drugs). Another major category of criminal proceedings is the illegal organization and conduct of gambling.
Most often among civil law disputes there are claims for the recovery of unjust enrichment when buying cryptocurrency (42 cases). For example, if a person transferred money to a third party to buy crypto, but he was credited with a smaller amount than he expected.
The number of bankruptcy cases related to the ownership of cryptocurrency has doubled in 2021. According to the study, in bankruptcy cases, the crypt is mentioned as property, therefore, to prove ownership of it, it is necessary to provide documents, for example, certificates of its presence in the account. It is a civil offense to unrecorded, contractless use of electricity for mining, which entails the collection of debts.
To prepare the report, RTM Group analyzed data from published acts of courts of general jurisdiction and arbitration courts, as well as information obtained from official letters from departments and bills.
