Moscow Court Jails ‘Crypto Expert’ and Mother for $23M Bitcoin Scam

A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian woman, Valeria Fedyakina, to seven years in a penal colony for running a crypto scam that defrauded victims of $23 million worth of Bitcoin in just two months.

Fedyakina, who reportedly branded herself as a cryptocurrency expert, orchestrated what prosecutors described as a pyramid scheme targeting investors in 2023. She was accused of promising quick returns through digital asset deals while ultimately draining clients’ funds.

The scam involved at least four known victims and totaled around 2.2 billion rubles, approximately £17 million at the time, according to The Telegraph.

Fedyakina reportedly told her clients that their money would be converted to cryptocurrency in Dubai, helping them avoid Russian sanctions. In return, she offered a 1% bonus on the transferred funds.

But investigators say the promised returns never materialized. Instead, the funds disappeared soon after the transfers. A spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said Fedyakina acted with intent to deceive.

“Fedyakina had a criminal intent to steal money or cryptocurrency by deceiving an indefinite number of people,” the spokesperson said. “She did so under the guise of investing in her activities in the transportation and purchase and sale of oil, oil products, gold, and other minerals.”

Russian media reports did not link the stolen funds to any specific international cause, but some sources outside the country claimed prosecutors believed some of the money may have been transferred to Ukraine.

Those claims have not been independently verified, and Russian outlets reporting on the case made no mention of them.

Fedyakina’s defense team denied the fraud charges. They insisted she supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and had expressed willingness to financially support the Russian military.

She was arrested in 2023 while attempting to leave Russia for the United Arab Emirates. At the time of her detention, Fedyakina was six months pregnant. She later gave birth in a maternity hospital before being returned to custody.

On June 24, the Presnensky District Court in Moscow delivered the final judgment. Despite her appeals, she was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to repay 2.2 billion rubles to her victims. Due to inflation, the compensation amount is now estimated at around £20 million.

Fedyakina had marketed herself under the nickname “Bitmama,” claiming she ran global operations and could deliver massive returns in cryptocurrency.

Prosecutors said it was all a front designed to lure in investors and steal their funds under the promise of sanctioned-proof crypto trading.

The sentencing marks one of the largest crypto fraud cases in Russia in recent years and adds to growing scrutiny over unregulated crypto schemes in the country.

The sentencing of a so-called “crypto expert” and her mother in Moscow for a $23 million Bitcoin scam is just one piece of a much broader crackdown by Russian authorities on crypto-related crimes.

In recent months, Russian law enforcement has intensified efforts to trace, seize, and prosecute crypto assets linked to illicit activity. On June 2, investigators confiscated $8.2 million worth of crypto from Dmitry Pavlov, a key figure in the now-defunct Hydra darknet market.

Pavlov, who admitted to managing the platform’s servers, reportedly earned his crypto “salary and bonuses” for maintaining Hydra’s infrastructure. Prosecutors say he held the coins, anticipating price growth, rather than converting them to fiat.

Hydra, once a dominant player on the darknet, is believed to have facilitated over $5 billion in crypto transactions before being dismantled. In December, a Moscow court sentenced 16 individuals involved in Hydra’s operations, with mastermind Stanislav Moiseev receiving a life sentence.

Stanislav Moiseev, the mastermind behind the notorious online black market Hydra, has been handed a life sentence by a Russian court.#Hydra #Cryptohttps://t.co/9uuAfft63K

The crackdown has also extended to illegal crypto mining. On June 3, police in Amur Oblast seized ₽7 million (~$88K) in BTC from a former power company official who operated unauthorized mining rigs.

Two weeks later, officials shut down a large-scale farm in Krasnoyarsk Krai, which earned over ₽4.6 million (~$58K) monthly by exploiting state-owned land.

Together, the arrests, seizures, and undercover activity paint a stark picture of how deeply entangled crypto has become in Russia’s underground economy and how aggressively authorities are now moving against it.

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