The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the filing of criminal charges against two Russian nationals who stole an estimated PHP340 million worth of the crypto currency "XRP" from a local virtual currency dealer.
In a statement, the DOJ said charges were filed before the Taguig Regional Trial Court (RTC) against Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck for violation of Republic Act No. 10175, otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
The two were former consultants of Coins.ph under the ownership of BETUR, Inc. They hacked the company’s system, stealing 12.2-million XRP amounting to a total of PHP340.745 million, the DOJ said.
Coins.ph is engaged in remittance, transmittal of money, foreign currency exchange and other money transactions.
Aydeev faces 23 counts of cybercrime cases with bail set at PHP120,000 for each count, while Yaschuck faces three counts with a bail of PHP120,000 for each.
In an eight-page resolution, the panel of prosecutors charged the respondents after Coins.ph concluded that the malicious actor must have had a comprehensive grasp of its network infrastructure, secure access key protocols and server systems based from the recorded suspicious system logins.
The respondents tried to swap and transfer the stolen funds through identified cryptocurrency services to obfuscate the origin/destination of money in an attempt to confuse investigators once their scheme is busted.
“It is the DOJ’s mandate to assure the Rule of Law is upheld at all times, and this extends even in cyberspace,” Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla said in a statement.
“Cybercriminals seem to have employed ways to keep up with modern technological trends to exploit the innocence of our people. Despite the government’s unwavering efforts to weed out undesirable elements in cyberspace, it is always better to stay vigilant on our own at all times,” he said.
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