The petition was submitted to the Arbitration Court docket of Sverdlovsk Oblast on November 3, the nation’s official information company TASS reported Wednesday.
Based on the submitting within the registry of arbitration circumstances, the financial institution’s claims exceed 770 million rubles (nearly $9.3 million), the enterprise information portal RBC highlighted.
BitRiver is the most important crypto mining agency within the Russian Federation, engaged in industrial minting of digital currencies, each reviews famous.
The businesses within the group present varied providers, together with connection, internet hosting and upkeep of mining gear in its knowledge processing facilities.
Two years in the past, BitRiver managed a complete of 15 such amenities with a mixed capability of 533 MW. On the time, its knowledge facilities hosted 175,000 {hardware} items.
Whereas headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, the corporate’s essential operations had been based mostly in Russian areas providing low-cost vitality and funky weather conditions like Siberia.
The Odessa, Ukraine-born Igor Runets established BitRiver in 2017. Within the fall of 2024, his web value was estimated at $230 million.
The now 40-year-old Russian businessman was detained in Moscow on the finish of January 2026 for evading taxation and initially positioned beneath home arrest.
BitRiver saga continues to unfold
Concurrently, Russian authorities launched formal chapter monitoring of BitRiver entities, which held the main spot amongst members of the rising mining sector, the primary crypto trade legalized in Russia.
In February, the Federal Tax Service (FNS) filed a chapter petition in opposition to the BitRiver-B subsidiary within the Republic of Buryatia, citing 3.6 million rubles (almost $44,000) of excellent debt, Bits.media recalled in a publish.
In July, Runets was additionally charged with large-scale fraud for the failed supply of crypto mining {hardware} and transferred to a everlasting detention facility, as beforehand reported by Cryptopolitan.
The coin minting gear had been ordered by firms from the En+ Holding, the massive vitality and metals producer based and nonetheless managed by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Chapter procedures in opposition to the Fox group, BitRiver’s proprietor, had been already initiated on the request of Infrastructure of Siberia, an entity from the En+ holding.
The latter accused the miner of failing to meet contractual obligations. The Arbitration Court docket of the Sverdlovsk area deemed the creditor’s claims legitimate and declared the corporate bankrupt.
Sources conversant in the investigation informed RBC that Fox was supposed to produce mining gear value over $8 million and was paid the majority of that sum.
The customer acquired neither the promised {hardware}, nor the cash again. Its whole damages from the deal amounted to just about 1 billion rubles (greater than $12 million).
Investigators are satisfied that Igor Runets by no means really supposed to meet the contract or return the prepayment. As an alternative, BitRiver’s boss used the funds for different functions.
Apart from, Fox had already gathered an estimated debt of greater than $9 million and was unable to safe enough funds to pay it off.
The group and En+ additionally had a three way partnership referred to as Bit+, which they created in 2019 to interact in cryptocurrency mining collectively, however Fox pulled out of the challenge.
An interim supervisor appointed by the courtroom to hunt options for BitRiver, together with by way of change of possession, has reportedly alleged that its chapter might have been intentional.
Most of the members within the nonetheless unfolding saga have been focused in western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, together with PSB, previously Promsvyazbank, and BitRiver itself.
