Cryptocurrency exchange Binance shared Ukraine donation data with Russian authorities resulting in his conviction.
Published On ۲۷ Oct ۲۰۲۶
A Russian military court has sentenced an IT specialist to ۱۳ years in prison for financing “terrorism” after the cryptocurrency exchange Binance gave Russian investigators details of his donations to Ukrainian fundraising campaigns.
The ۲nd Western District Military Court on Monday convicted ۴۹-year-old Yuri Belenkiy and sentenced him to three years in prison followed by ۱۰ years in a strict-regime penal colony, according to a court statement.
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Russian state news agency TASS reported that Belenkiy is a former IT director of the company DiHouse and that prosecutors had asked for ۱۴ years. He was also fined ۵۰۰,۰۰۰ roubles ($۶,۳۰۰).
Belenkiy, who holds a Bulgarian residence permit, was detained in September last year when he flew to Moscow for a visit. He denied the charges, and his defence will appeal the verdict, according to TASS.
According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the court found that between August ۲۰۲۲ and March ۲۰۲۴, Belenkiy made ۱۵ cryptocurrency transfers worth more than ۱۲۰,۰۰۰ roubles ($۱,۵۰۰) to fund Ukraine’s armed forces and the Azov battalion, which Russia designates a “terrorist” organisation. He used payment details posted by Arkady Babchenko, an exiled Russian journalist and Kremlin critic. RIA added that Belenkiy is on the Russian financial monitoring agency’s list of “terrorists and extremists”.
Russian law enforcement documents seen by the Reuters news agency showed that Binance gave investigators Belenkiy’s transaction history in response to a Russian request. The documents also showed that the records were instrumental in prosecuting him.
“The response from Binance serves as key evidence in the criminal case against Belenkiy,” Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the rights group First Department, which assists people facing politically motivated prosecutions in Russia, told Reuters.
In court, however, the defence questioned whether the data really came from Binance, noting that the exchange has not cooperated with Russia since ۲۰۲۲, TASS reported.
Asked about the sentence, Binance referred Reuters to a previous statement saying the exchange “does not make or enforce the laws of any jurisdiction, determine charges, or decide how any government uses information in legal proceedings”. It said it does not comment on confidential law enforcement requests or individual cases.
Binance pulled out of the Russian market in ۲۰۲۳, after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions that followed. Mike Bystrov, a lawyer specialising in crypto regulation, told Reuters in August that the exchange had been under no obligation to provide Belenkiy’s data. Because of Belenkiy’s Bulgarian residency, Bystrov said, Binance may in fact have been obliged under European Union data protection law not to do so.
First Department claimed in a recent report that about ۱۰ percent of all charges brought under the country’s treason and espionage laws in ۲۰۲۵ were linked to donations to Ukrainian organisations. The group said authorities track cryptocurrency transfers as well as bank payments, and continue to open cases over donations made as early as ۲۰۲۲.
