The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation proposes to put in a colony for droppership

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, together with other law enforcement agencies, is going to introduce criminal liability for helping crypto scammers.

Law enforcement agencies talk about the growing demand of criminals for the services of droppers – people who help launder and cash out illegally obtained money for fraudsters.

Acting Deputy Head of Departmental and Procedural Control of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Roman Bubnov admitted that the authorities are considering the issue of introducing criminal liability for such an act. Violators face four to seven years in prison.

Lawyer of the Yukov and Partners agency Jamali Kuliyev says that the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes to single out droppership as a separate offense, with all the ensuing qualifying consequences. For example, for the commission of an offense by an organized group and with an especially large income, a maximum sentence will be imposed.

Usually, a dropper is offered a job related to accepting funds to their bank card or crypto wallet. Further, depending on the task set by the scammers, the dropper can buy cryptocurrency, split the incoming payment by sending funds to several controlled addresses, or withdraw funds. In fact, a dropper is an intermediate link in a fraudulent chain that allows, with an acceptable level of risk, to cash out stolen funds.

In some cases, the dropper does not realize that the assets received on his accounts were not obtained in a completely honest way. However, this ignorance does not exempt the dropper from criminal liability.

In June, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma committee on the financial market, introduced a bill to the lower house of parliament to punish the issuance of digital assets without the permission of the regulator.