Igor Runets, the founder of Russia's largest cryptocurrency mining company BitRiver, has been transferred from house arrest to a pretrial detention facility for at least two months. The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky District Court ordered the change on July 22, 2026, after prosecutors added large-scale fraud charges tied to the alleged non-delivery of mining equipment to entities connected with the En+ Group.
The new charges mark a sharp escalation from the tax evasion case that had kept Runets under house arrest since late January 2026. He now faces allegations under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code, which covers fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale. The alleged damages total nearly 1 billion rubles, a figure cited across multiple sources as roughly $12.5 million to $13 million.
Investigators claim that a company controlled by Runets received full advance payment from an En+ subsidiary for mining equipment, but the equipment was never delivered and the funds were never returned. The court sided with law enforcement's request to tighten custody, citing both the scale of the alleged harm and concerns that Runets could pressure witnesses. Representatives for BitRiver and Runets' lawyers have not publicly commented on the ruling.