Sergey Shulman, a lawyer at Aronov & Partners, commented to Kommersant on the intensification of law enforcement efforts to recover damages from so-called “droppers” — intermediaries who provide their bank accounts for the withdrawal of funds stolen by fraudsters.
🔹Key figures and facts:
➠ Since the beginning of the year, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office has filed over 1,500 lawsuits against droppers for more than 1 billion rubles.
➠ The total amount of recoveries on behalf of fraud victims in the capital exceeded 1.2 billion rubles in less than a year.
➠ In the second quarter of 2025, the total damage to bank customers from fraudsters amounted to about 6.5 billion rubles, of which only 5% (315 million rubles) was recovered.
Sergey Shulman noted that, contrary to popular belief, droppers in most cases act deliberately. The courts satisfy claims for the recovery of unjust enrichment from such persons in full, referring to Article 1102 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The courts do not take into account the arguments of droppers that they “knew nothing” about the origin of the money.
The problem of droppers is reaching alarming proportions. According to experts, millions of people are involved in this activity. To combat this phenomenon, criminal liability for droppers was introduced in July 2025, providing for punishment of up to six years' imprisonment. Despite the satisfaction of claims, it is not always possible to return the money to the victims, as the funds are quickly withdrawn from accounts and droppers often have no other property to recover.
🔗 Read the full article at the link.
