A Russian court has moved BitRiver founder Igor Runets from home surveillance to pretrial detention. Local legal media outlet Pravo.ru reports that he will stand trial in connection with a "massive fraud" case related to the delivery of cryptocurrency mining equipment.

The allegations involve mining machine contracts.

Investigators say Runets failed to fulfill an equipment supply contract, resulting in losses exceeding 1 billion rubles, or approximately $12.5 million. The contract, reportedly worth $8 million, was signed in 2023.

The contracting party is Infrastructure of Siberia, a subsidiary of En+. Reports indicate that En+, in addition to its aluminum business, is also involved in digital infrastructure, technology, and cryptocurrency mining projects.

BitRiver once expanded to 15 data centers.

Runets is considered one of the earliest figures to invest in cryptocurrency mining in Russia. He founded BitRiver in 2017 and began building a mining data center in Siberia that same year. Since then, the business has expanded to 15 data centers with more than 175,000 servers.

BitRiver has long been considered one of Russia's largest cryptocurrency mining operators, so this case has raised concerns about the operational stability of local mining companies.

The company had previously been under multiple pressures.

The report mentioned that Runets was detained in February and placed under house arrest on three counts of tax evasion. Meanwhile, BitRiver faced increasing operational pressure after shutting down several mining farms following a six-year mining ban in parts of Russia.

In February of this year, an arbitration court in Russia initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Group of Companies Fox. This company holds 98% of BitRiver's registered capital, making it its controlling shareholder. This means that BitRiver faces not only the criminal case against its founder but also repayment pressure at the shareholder level.