Russian authorities have detained a grouping of online criminals that reportedly sold massive amounts of apocryphal banknotes on the dark web in return for cryptocurrencies.

Co-ordinate to an April 7 report from Russian news agency Kommersant, the criminal group has managed to sell more than 1 billion apocryphal Russian rubles, worth around $13 million equally of press time.

Criminals operated via Russia's largest darknet marketplace

As the land's Ministry of Internal Affairs reported to Kommersant, the online perpetrators were operating currency counterfeiting via a darknet shop on Russian federation'south largest darknet marketplace, Hydra. According to the report, the store was operating under the "Bank of Russian federation" proper name, which is an alternative title to the country's central bank, the Primal Banking company of the Russian Federation. The government reportedly highlighted the loftier quality of the forged banknotes.

Authorities claim that the simulated bills were sold in return for crypto

The study outlines that the crime group has been active for nigh a year, selling imitation Russian rubles on the darknet in exchange for "cryptocurrency exclusively." First spotted in the Commonwealth of Tatarstan, the faux banknotes have reportedly spread to dozens of regions in Russia. According to the report, modest batches of counterfeit currencies were sold for thirty% of their nominal value, while majority fake notes (starting from $6,500) were offered for merely 10-fifteen%.

Russian federation'south internal diplomacy ministry reportedly said that this is the first example of its kind in the country. However, Russia is not the kickoff country to face up money counterfeit operations involving cryptocurrency. In September 2022, Portuguese constabulary and Europol seized funds worth well-nigh $fourscore,000 from counterfeit operators that were selling fake money for Bitcoin (BTC).