A Russian court has sentenced three young men to five years in prison for attempting to rob a cryptocurrency owner in Omsk. The attackers broke into the victim's apartment, threatened him with a knife, and beat him, but fled empty-handed after a neighbor intervened. The court ordered them to pay the victim over $5,000 in damages.
On March 3, Omsk’s Leninsky District Court convicted three men, aged between 21 and 23, of charges related to a violent attempted robbery targeting cryptocurrencies and cash. The incident occurred on April 10, 2024, when the trio, aided by an accomplice who had previously delivered a package to the address and identified the victim as a crypto holder, approached the apartment complex at night wearing masks and hoods.
Closed-circuit television footage presented in court showed the defendants tricking the victim into opening the door before forcing their way inside. Prosecutors stated: “The defendants broke into the [unnamed] victim’s apartment, threatened him with a knife, beat him, and demanded that he hand over cryptocurrencies and cash.” The attack involved torture at knifepoint, but it was interrupted when a neighbor, alerted by suspicious noises, investigated and caused the robbers to panic and flee without obtaining any cryptocurrency.
The three defendants denied involvement in the crime, but the court found them guilty on all charges. They were sentenced to serve their five-year terms in maximum-security penal colonies. Their courier accomplice faces a separate trial.
This case highlights a growing trend of violent crimes against crypto holders in Russia, though courts appear to be responding with convictions. For instance, in November, a western Russian court jailed two attackers who stole $171,000 in crypto from a blogger, and a trial is underway in Kazan involving seven suspects who forced a man to transfer $42,000 in crypto.
