Moscow arrests three people over alleged Qiwi-based scheme moving more than RUB 30 billion, with use cases tied to casinos and betting

Three people have been arrested in Moscow in a case involving the alleged transfer of more than RUB 30 billion abroad through Qiwi. For high-risk operators and their PSPs, the detail that matters is not the headline number alone: investigators say the same electronic wallets were also used for shadow online business, including casinos, betting services, and drug trafficking.

1. According to Kommersant, the arrested men are Grigory Kisilgov and Denis Li, described as the heads and owners of the Intercom group of companies, and Alexander Mikhalchuk, who is linked to the terminal business and mobile operators’ dealer services.
2. Investigators believe that in 2022–2023 dozens of thousands of electronic wallets were registered through offices under their control using straw persons and stolen personal data. Those wallets were then used for illegal money transfers and for settlements in shadow online business.
3. The criminal case was opened in February 2026 under articles covering the unlawful circulation of payment instruments and illegal foreign exchange operations on an especially large scale. The suspects have already been charged, and Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court ordered them into pre-trial detention.
4. Operational measures were carried out by the Russian Interior Ministry’s GUEBiPK, and searches in Moscow led to the seizure of documents and electronic media that, according to law enforcement, support the case against the detained men.

The practical point for PSPs is straightforward: wallet abuse at scale can sit inside ordinary-looking infrastructure, with the same rails serving both legitimate turnover and high-risk flows. When investigators start tying a payments stack to casinos, betting, and other shadow verticals, the compliance story stops being theoretical very quickly.