According to CoinMeta, Igor Runets, the founder of BitRiver, has been transferred from house arrest to pre-trial detention by a Moscow court due to a fraud case involving nearly 1 billion rubles. The case relates to a equipment supply contract with a Siberian infrastructure company, with a contract value of over 8 million US dollars. Investigators stated that the buyer had paid a prepayment of over 7.9 million US dollars, but the equipment was not delivered, nor was the money refunded. Runets faces charges under Article 159, Paragraph 4 of Russia's criminal law, which deals with particularly large-scale fraud. These charges are still at the preliminary stage and have not yet been convicted by the court.