Former Russian traffic police officer sentenced to 7 years for stealing bitcoin

On December 27, a former traffic police officer in Ufa, Russia, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for stealing approximately 20 million rubles (equivalent to several hundred thousand US dollars) in bitcoin. The case occurred in 2022, when the officer illegally obtained access to the mobile phones of two detained individuals during an investigation, transferred BTC through messaging apps and crypto wallets, and used violence during evidence collection. The court sentenced him to 7 years in a general regime prison, ordered him to compensate the victims about 20 million rubles, and stripped him of his police rank.