A 16-year-old schoolboy turned out to be a cryptocurrency fraudster from Belarus

A schoolboy from Minsk tried to make money by selling a non-existent cryptocurrency. Back in August 2022, one of the potential buyers found the boy’s ad in a chat room and arranged a meeting with the «seller.» During the transaction, the child pretended to conduct a «transaction» on his smartphone. Instead, the boy took real $ 6 thousand from the victim.

An hour after the so-called «transaction», the buyer did not receive his cryptocurrency, so he asked the schoolboy to return the money. The boy took out pepper spray and sprayed the victim in the face. After that, the student fled.

The boy was quickly found — he was a 16-year-old student of one of Minsk’s secondary schools. During the interrogation by the investigator, the schoolboy admitted that this was not the only crime in his «portfolio» — earlier he managed to deceive a Russian who also wanted to buy cryptocurrency. The loser handed over 2.5 thousand rubles to the young criminal, and the boy fled.

At the moment, the schoolboy’s actions are classified under Part 1 of Article 206 (robbery) and Part 2 of Article 207 (robbery committed repeatedly on a large scale) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. The guy is now under round-the-clock surveillance, and the stolen money has been partially returned to the victim.

In late August last year, the owner of the Belarusian cryptocurrency exchange Bitok. me, Uladzislau Kuchynski, was put on the international wanted list. The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus accuses him of tax evasion (approximately 9 million Belarusian rubles). Over the past two years, Kuchinsky and his accomplices have conducted more than 8,000 cryptocurrency exchange transactions totaling $ 29 million dollars.