Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court officially transferred Igor Runets from house arrest to pretrial detention on July 22. The founder of crypto mining firm BitRiver is scheduled to spend the next two months behind bars while investigators unpack a case of alleged large-scale fraud.
The criminal case falls under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code. The core dispute stems from a 2023 business deal, when Fox Group, a company owned by Runets, signed a hardware supply agreement with Infrastructure of Siberia, an entity operating under the En+ group umbrella.
The purchase agreement was valued at over $8 million for Antminer S19k Pro crypto mining rigs. As a sign of commitment, the buyer transferred a $7.9 million advance payment, expecting the full batch of mining equipment to arrive on site within 32 days as stipulated in the contract.
Reality turned out differently. Investigative findings now conclude that Runets never intended to fulfill his contractual obligations from the start. Instead of delivering the Antminer units, he is accused of misappropriating the buyer’s funds for other purposes.
Dead-End Denials and Bankruptcy
The commercial dispute has already dragged through extensive civil proceedings. In April 2025, the Irkutsk Arbitration Court ordered Fox Group to pay ₽954.4 million in damages to Infrastructure of Siberia. Runets pushed back the following month, denying wrongdoing and insisting that all agreed-upon equipment had been delivered, while announcing Fox Group’s plans to appeal.
However, those legal efforts collided with the firm’s worsening financial health. Fox Group was placed under bankruptcy supervision in February 2026, leading to a court decision opening full liquidation proceedings in late May. The blow deepened in June when a Moscow court stepped in to freeze all of Runets’ stakes in Fox Group, along with several other entities affiliated with BitRiver.
A Double Blow to Russia’s Crypto Ambitions
The latest detention extends Runets’ mounting legal troubles, as he had already been under house arrest since late January over a separate tax evasion and asset concealment case.
For BitRiver, the cascade of legal actions against its leadership deepens existing wounds. The company’s international standing has struggled to recover since the US Department of the Treasury placed it and 10 of its Russian subsidiaries on the sanctions list in April 2022.
BitRiver once claimed that Russia had the capacity to overtake the United States in the Bitcoin mining sector. Today, the collapse of Fox Group and criminal charges facing its founder suggest their toughest test comes not from global competition, but from financial disputes in their own backyard.
As reported by crypto.news.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
