Moscow arrests in a Qiwi cash-out case tied to 30 billion rubles and high-risk payment flows

Russian authorities have detained the top management and owners of the Intercom group, including Grigory Kisilgov, Denis Li, and Alexander Mikhalchuk, in a case involving more than 24,000 Qiwi e-wallets opened on straw identities in 2022-2023. For PSPs and payment agents in high-risk verticals, the point is simple: legacy payment rails, terminal networks, and dealer services can become the basis for retroactive criminal exposure years later.

1. According to the source, the detained figures are Intercom executives and owners, all of whom are in pre-trial detention, with charges already filed. Industry sources say up to 15 people may be in custody in total.
2. The alleged scheme involved more than 24,000 Qiwi electronic wallets registered in 2022-2023 to nominal holders using other people’s personal data. The stated use case for the infrastructure included crypto exchange, settlement support for gambling platforms, bookmaker services, and drug trafficking.
3. Investigators also suspect that the same infrastructure may have been used to move money connected to the attempted assassination of writer Zakhar Prilepin in May 2023. That detail pushes the matter beyond a routine financial case and into a higher-priority law-enforcement file.
4. The case is being qualified under part 2 of article 187 and paragraphs “a” and “b” of part 3 of article 193.1 of the Russian Criminal Code: unlawful circulation of payment instruments by an organized group, and foreign-currency transactions to non-resident accounts using forged documents on a particularly large scale. Operational support is being provided by the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry, known as GUEBiPK.
5. Industry sources say the real owners of the business have long been outside Russia, while the detained people are local payment agents authorities could reach. The source also says work on specific individuals was discussed in closed chats from February 2026, and that the seizure of equipment and SIM cards suggests investigators are working from the full client database of the terminal business.

For high-risk operators, the useful takeaway is not the Qiwi brand name itself. It is the enforcement pattern: infrastructure used for “gray” settlement can later be treated as evidence of participation, and activity from 2022-2023 can still be turned into criminal cases now, with a limitation period of 10-15 years for these charges.