2 Russians indicted for P340 million cryptocurrency heist

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed charges against two Russian nationals for allegedly stealing 12.2 million cryptocurrency amounting to P340.7 million.

DOJ prosecutors filed complaints against Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck before a Taguig court for violating Section 4 of Republic Act 10175, otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

The Russians were employed as consultants by local financial company Coins.ph, which is engaged in remittance, money transmittal, foreign currency exchange and other money transactions, under the ownership of Betur Inc.

Security team of Coins.ph allegedly found that the “malicious actor must have had a comprehensive grasp of its network infrastructure, secure access key protocols and server systems, based on the recorded suspicious system logins.”

The Russians allegedly attempted to swap and transfer the stolen funds through identified cryptocurrency services to muddle the origin and destination of the money in an attempt to confuse investigators.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla reiterated his commitment to pursuing cyber criminals.