[Russia] - Russia Sentences Alleged Founder of Hydra Darknet Market to Life in Prison

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Russian courtsentenced a criminal offense boss explained by state media as the creator of taken apart darknet drug marketplace Hydra to
life in jail on organized crime and drug charges.Founded in 2015, Hydra sold controlled substances, taken credit card data, counterfeit
currency and phony identity documents
The identities of its 17 million consumer accounts and 19,000 supplier accounts were masked by the Tor file encryption network.Hydra was
approximated to have deserved over $1.3 billion when German authorities shut it down, took control of its servers and seized its bitcoin
properties in April 2022
The identity of its founder is not known to the public.The state-run TASS and Interfax news firms, citing anonymous police authorities,
claimed that Stanislav Moiseyev, who was sentenced on drug and arranged criminal activity charges on Monday, was Hydras founder.The Moscow
regional chapter of the Prosecutor Generals Office saidthat Moiseyev and 15 of his accomplices ran an arranged criminal group in Russia and
Belarus between 2015 and October 2018
The Moscow Regional Court found Moiseyev and the 15 accomplices guilty of running or being part of an organized criminal group, in addition
to drug production and trafficking.The prosecutors workplace did not publicly link Moiseyev to Hydra.Moiseyev was sentenced to life in
prison, while the 15 accomplices were sentenced to in between 8 years and 23 years in prison
Moiseyev was also fined 4 million rubles ($37,780) and his accomplices were fined a combined 16 million rubles ($151,120)
The prosecutors office stated police officers took practically one metric lots of narcotics and psychotropic substances during raids that
took apart the criminal group.Authorities seized the group members properties and vehicles as part of their sentences.The sentences undergo
appeals.