The founder and CEO of Russian Bitcoin mining company BitRiver, Igor Runets, has reportedly been detained and charged with multiple counts of tax evasion.
Local media outlets including RBK and Kommersant reported on Sunday that Runets was detained on Friday and faces three charges related to the alleged concealment of assets to avoid paying taxes.
According to court records from Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court, cited by the reports, Runets was formally charged on Saturday and placed under house arrest the same day.
Runets’ defense team has a limited window to appeal the house-arrest order before it takes full effect on Wednesday. If no appeal is filed, or if the appeal is denied, Runets will remain under house arrest for the duration of the legal proceedings.
Founded in 2017, BitRiver has grown into one of Russia’s largest Bitcoin mining companies, operating large-scale data centers across Siberia and providing crypto mining services to third-party clients.
In late 2024, Bloomberg reported that Igor Runets’ net worth had reached approximately $230 million, largely driven by his involvement in the crypto mining industry.
Mounting challenges for BitRiver
BitRiver has faced increasing difficulties since being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in mid-2022 following the Russia–Ukraine conflict.
In May 2023, one of its key clients—the Japanese banking group SBI—ceased using BitRiver’s Bitcoin mining infrastructure after exiting the Russian market amid the ongoing war.
According to Kommersant, BitRiver began implementing company-wide cost-cutting measures and scaling back operations toward the end of 2024, which was followed by delayed salary payments to employees.
In early 2025, the company was also hit with two lawsuits from the electricity provider Infrastructure of Siberia, which alleged it had paid BitRiver under an equipment procurement contract but never received the promised hardware.
