The CEO of the Russian Bitcoin mining company BitRiver has been arrested on suspicion of tax evasion

According to Cointelegraph, Igor Runets, the founder and CEO of the Russian Bitcoin mining company BitRiver, has been detained on suspicion of tax evasion.

Documents from the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow show that Runets was detained on January 30 and charged on January 31 with three counts of tax evasion related to concealed assets, and he was placed under house arrest. If the appeal fails or is not filed, the house arrest order will take effect on February 4, and Runets will be restricted to his home for the duration of the case.

Founded in 2017, BitRiver is one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in Russia, operating multiple large data centers in Siberia. According to Bloomberg, by the end of 2024, Runets has accumulated approximately $230 million in net assets through his cryptocurrency mining business.

Since being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, BitRiver has faced multiple challenges, including the cessation of infrastructure use by Japan's SBI Bank, unpaid employee wages, and two lawsuits from Siberian infrastructure suppliers.