The case of Alexei Ivanov, a system administrator at the Singapore-based WEX cryptocurrency exchange, is set to be heard in Novosibirsk.
Ivanov is accused of misappropriating digital assets worth 3 billion rubles, in what is believed to be Russia’s first criminal case involving the theft of cryptocurrency.
According to investigators, Ivanov used his administrator privileges to block access to the site for both the owner and users, and then transferred funds from the exchange’s wallets to his own addresses.
The court clarified that Ivanov “received the opportunity of sole access and disposal of cryptocurrency.
Excluded access to it by the owner of the exchange, its representatives, and users, after which he appropriated the digital currency (cryptocurrency) of various denominations entrusted to him in an amount equivalent to 3,167,433,649 rubles at the exchange rate as of October 24, 2018, which is a particularly large size.”
Ivanov is facing charges under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which covers the theft of property entrusted to the guilty, committed on an especially large scale.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million rubles.
However, it’s likely that the sentence will be more lenient, as Ivanov has already entered into a pre-trial agreement and returned the stolen funds. It’s worth noting that in November of last year, an unknown person withdrew 10,000 bitcoins from a wallet linked to the WEX exchange.