Card payment: Vrublevsky, founder of ChronoPay, was sentenced to 10 years
The Khamovniki court of Moscow has sentenced Pavel Vrublevsky, the founder of ChronoPay, who is accused of fraud. According to the investigation, the defendants in the case stole money from the accounts of Russians with the help of the Vanguard company, which was a client of ChronoPay. In total, the investigation identified 36 victims. Vrublevsky was sentenced to 10 years in prison, although the prosecutor had requested 12 years. However, the convict himself was expecting a more severe punishment, his lawyer said, and said that the verdict was still planned to appeal. The details of the case are in the Izvestia article.
What was the verdict in the ChronoPay case?
Pavel Vrublevsky, the founder of ChronoPay (an operator of online payments using bank cards), received 10 years in prison in a case of fraud with Russian accounts. This decision was made on Monday, October 27, by the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow.
Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of the ChronoPay payment system
Vrublevsky was found guilty of embezzlement of Sberbank customers' funds in the amount of 535 thousand rubles, money laundering, as well as illegal circulation of funds for payments in the amount of more than 400 million rubles.
The accused was detained in March 2022. According to the investigation, he and his accomplices fraudulently stole money from the accounts of Russians with the help of the Vanguard company, which was a client of ChronoPay. To do this, Vrublevsky posted false information online, offering financial rewards for participating in surveys and for successfully forecasting the exchange rate and stocks.
The defendants in the case were charged with fraud as part of an organized group, theft, money laundering and illegal circulation of funds of payments. In total, the investigation identified 36 victims who lost 534.9 thousand rubles according to the same scheme. The total number of searches in the ChronoPay case exceeded 30, according to their results, the security forces seized about $ 350 thousand, servers and computer equipment.
Together with Vrublevsky, three of his accomplices were convicted — Alexey Belyaev, an employee of ChronoPay, Matvey Vedyashkin, a programmer at the company, and Nadezhda Akimov, the head of Vanguard.
The court sentenced Vrublevsky to 10 years in a penal colony and a fine of 1.5 million rubles. Andrey Belyaev received two years less — eight years in prison with a fine of 1 million rubles. Nadezhda Akimova was sentenced to six years with a similar fine. The judge sentenced Matvey Vedyashkin to four years in prison with a fine of 50 thousand rubles. None of them admitted their guilt.
At the same time, the court fully satisfied the claims filed by 10 victims. They insisted on paying them compensation in the amount of 3 thousand to 43 thousand rubles. The total amount of claims amounted to 190 thousand rubles.
In January 2025, the state prosecution requested 12 years in a general regime penal colony and a fine of 2.5 million rubles for Vrublevsky. And for all other defendants in the case — from 7 to 10 years.
The lawyers stated that they intend to appeal the verdict. Alexander Ingoyadov, who defended Pavel Vrublevsky, called the terms imposed on the defendants excessively harsh, and the guilt of the defendants unproven. However, his client expected a more severe sentence, the lawyer said.
"But in my opinion, a 10—year prison sentence is already a harsh enough punishment," he added.
Another person involved, ChronoPay programmer Dmitry Somov, pleaded guilty during the investigation and entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement. In November 2024, the Khamovnichesky court sentenced him to three years in prison.
Case details
The verdict in the ChronoPay case is not the first for Vrublevsky. He was first arrested in 2011 on charges of hacking a company that develops and integrates payment solutions and payment service provider Assist. The organization was a competitor to his company. He was convicted in this case in 2013 and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. But in 2014, Vrublevsky was released from prison on parole.
According to investigators, in July 2010, Assist was blocked by a hacker attack, and for about 10 days its clients could not use the server. Among the injured was the airline Aeroflot. She lost more than 146 million rubles. At the same time, Assist lost about 10 times less — about 15 million rubles.
The new sentence does not go beyond the general practice, lawyer Andrei Mishonov told Izvestia.
"The courts impose stricter terms — from 10 to 12 years — if the role of the organizer is proven, with significant damage and no compensation," he added.
There are exceptions when the accused actively cooperate with the investigation, partially compensate for the damage or conclude a pre-trial agreement, the expert emphasized.
What is known about Vrublevsky's son
In July 2024, the court arrested Vrublevsky's son Peter in absentia on charges of intentionally destroying other people's property. He is also involved in criminal cases of extortion, arson and advertising of a large drug marketplace in the shadow segment of the Internet. Peter Vrublevsky is currently on the international wanted list.
He has been living in Switzerland since January 2022. Law enforcement agencies believe that Vrublevsky Jr. is known among users of darknet resources under the pseudonyms Weapon Prevention, Bruce Wayne and Peter the Pianist. But so far, no announcements have been presented to him about this.
Peter Vrublevsky himself declared to Izvestia that he was innocent and wanted to return to Russia. Some victims of arson believe that he is hiding under the pseudonym the Pianist.
— I only know about the Pianist from the news, because I am constantly tied to him. I'm not a pianist myself," he said. — I'm not ready to be responsible for things that I didn't do.
Vrublevsky Jr. said that he dreams of returning to Moscow and walking around his favorite places again, for example, going to the Pushkin cafe.
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