Moscow crypto exchange raided after pensioner loses 13.3 million rubles in scam cash-out

A Moscow crypto exchange was raided after a Russian pensioner said fraudsters tricked her into handing over 13.3 million rubles in cash. For PSPs and high-risk operators, the case is another reminder that crypto cash desks can become a disposal point for scam proceeds fast enough to draw law enforcement attention.

1. The pensioner said unknown callers posed as staff from different government agencies and told her that her Gosuslugi account had been hacked and that she was suspected of breaking the law. To “avoid prison,” she was instructed to withdraw all her money and hand it to a courier for verification. She withdrew 13.3 million rubles from a bank, put the cash in a bag, and gave it to a young man on the street.
2. Police detained the 22-year-old courier, who admitted he had taken the money to one of Moscow’s crypto exchanges. Officers then searched offices of the exchange on Mantulinskaya Street and Presnenskaya Embankment, where they detained four men aged 20–30. All four had come from the Volgograd region.
3. Inside the offices, investigators found documents related to cryptocurrency transactions, cash-counting machines, a shredder, and more than 5 million rubles in cash. Soon after, police detained another suspect, a 26-year-old man accused of “crypto exchange of illegal funds,” at the airport as he was preparing to leave Moscow.
4. Five suspects were placed in custody, while the courier who collected the money from the elderly woman was released on a travel restriction. Police also detained two more couriers at the crypto exchange — a 19-year-old woman and an 18-year-old man. Investigators say they were preparing to exchange scam proceeds for cryptocurrency, and police seized more than 3 million rubles in cash from them.
5. Earlier in August, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it had detained about 20 employees of crypto exchanges at Moscow-City on suspicion of helping fraudsters. The agency said it had shut down nine crypto exchanges, describing them as nine channels used to move funds abroad with cryptocurrency. According to the FSB, Ukrainian call centers laundered money stolen from Russian victims through these venues.