According to a Russian news outlet, security agencies and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation want to introduce a way to punish citizens who assist scammers that exploit cryptocurrency investments.
As per officers, there has been a growing demand for people who are willing to help crypto scammers by laundering illegally obtained funds.
A “dropper” is offered illicit funds in the form of crypto or funds in the bank accounts. Once the funds are in their accounts they are asked to buy crypto— once they have bought crypto they can either withdraw the money or split the crypto between several wallets.
These droppers are a part of this money laundering scheme willingly or unknowingly. Even if they were trapped into laundering money for a scammer, the dropper involved in the scam will not be spared by Russian authorities in any case.
Jamali Kuliyev from the Yukov and Partners law firm says that the proposal by the interior ministry defines the job done by such “droppers” as a separate crime. It gives a free way for Russian courts to impose the maximum sentence.
The first major admission of this upcoming law was made by Roman Bubnov, deputy head for departmental and procedural control at MVD’s Investigative Department. He further revealed that droppers may face four to seven years of prison time.
A bill introducing penalties for unauthorized issuance of digital financial assets was submitted to the State Duma (lower house), in June. Anatoly Aksakov, the Chairman of the Financial Market Committee filed the draft for the law which will supposedly regulate crypto in the country.
The new legislation is expected to be adopted by this fall since the Russian Federation is yet to fully regulate its crypto sector.