Russia opens case over illicit crypto exchange via Rapidpay

Officers of Russia’s Interior Ministry detained four people accused of organising the illegal movement of funds via the Rapidpay payment system, the ministry’s spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

According to investigators, the illegal service catered to cryptocurrency exchange outlets, betting shops, online casinos and fraudulent call centres.

To keep payments anonymous, Rapidpay’s creators used e-wallets and bank cards registered to nominees.

Law enforcement identified more than 70 independent groups and over 8,500 bank details involved in the criminal scheme.

A criminal case has been opened over the unlawful handling of payment funds. The detainees were released under a travel ban.

Since September 2021, the Bank of Russia has classified transactions with crypto exchangers as suspicious and requires banks to monitor them closely. If money laundering is suspected, financial institutions may block a customer’s transactions and even terminate the contract.

In 2024, the regulator cut the banking sector’s involvement in high-risk P2P transactions by a factor of 2.8 compared with the previous year.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that the Bank of Russia together with Rosfinmonitoring is developing a platform to monitor suspicious transactions by individuals and share this information among credit institutions.