Russian Crypto Fraud Ring’s Courier Stole Illicit Profits & Gambled Them Away

An illegal courier for Russian crypto fraud gangs spent $20,000 of a crime ring’s ill-gotten gains on a casino and partying blowout, say police.

Police in St. Petersburg said they have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of running errands for a range of telephone scammers, the Russian media outlet Novaya Kuban reported.

Officers explained the scammers had successfully duped a Kuban-based citizen out of $20,000 worth of an unnamed foreign currency. The scammers told their alleged victim they could “make money on cryptocurrency investments” if they paid in cash.

After receiving the cash, the scammers reportedly handed it over to the courier. They told him to deliver the cash to a money laundering gang.

But the suspect reportedly decided to take the money to the nearest casino. Police said the man frittered most of the money away on losing bets at a roulette table.

Russian Crypto Fraud Courier Arrested in St. Petersburg

The suspect spent the rest of the money drinking in bars and hosting late-night parties, police said.

The Krasnodar Criminal Investigation Department has remanded the suspect in custody. Officers say they have launched a manhunt for the suspected scammers.

Elsewhere, in the city of Belogorsk, in the Amur Oblast, near the border with China, a court has found a gambling-addicted teenage boy guilty of stealing 1 million rubles (worth over $13,300) from a friend’s family. The boy spent the stolen money on an electric scooter and on online gambling.

Prosecutors said the unnamed 14-year-old boy saw his friend’s father enter his PIN on a banking app while out shopping with his friend and the latter’s father.

After memorizing the PIN, the boy went on to make several thefts from the father’s account. He stole small amounts each time in a bid to evade detection, prosecutors said.

The friend’s father only noticed the money was gone when he later attempted to withdraw cash to make a purchase, the Russian media outlet Gazeta.Ru reported.

Police said the teenager initially denied the crime, but later made a full confession. A court in Amur sentenced him to two years in a youth correctional facility.

In Moscow, meanwhile, lawmakers have approved a draft bill that will give anti-gambling bodies new powers.

The bill proposes speeding up the processes that allow censors to block residents’ access to illegal online casinos.