FSB says it detained more than 20 crypto exchange staff in Moscow City and shut nine exchange channels

Russia’s Federal Security Service said it detained more than 20 employees of crypto exchanges in Moscow City, accusing them of helping fraud networks move stolen money abroad. For high-risk payments operators, the key detail is simple: the alleged flow ran through offline crypto exchange desks, couriers, and cross-border crypto transfers.

1. The FSB said it detained more than 20 people at the Moscow City business center, including employees of “unregistered exchanges” and young couriers aged 18 to 25. According to the agency, the couriers collected cash from victims of fraud and passed it to exchange staff for transfer to Ukraine.
2. Security services said they shut nine crypto exchanges and “stopped the activity of nine channels for moving money abroad using cryptocurrency.” In the FSB’s version of events, Ukrainian call centers used these platforms to launder funds stolen from Russian victims.
3. The agency said victims were kept in constant contact with fraudsters and followed step-by-step instructions, sometimes meeting couriers or visiting crypto exchange offices without understanding what they were doing. The FSB also said that, in Moscow City exchanges, fraud victims including pensioners were sold cryptocurrency and then the funds were transferred to accounts of Ukrainian handlers.
4. On 31 July, Russian law enforcement conducted a series of searches in crypto exchange offices in the Federation East tower in Moscow City. Police said at the time that the searches were part of an investigation into the theft of 144 million rubles, based on a complaint from one of the victims of crypto fraud.
5. In April, Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia commission on legislative expertise, said that illegal digital asset transactions should be investigated by FSB officers. He also said a significant share of crypto exchange services operates “outside the legal framework.”