The Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of the first three defendants in a criminal case on the illegal use of a subscriber terminal for traffic пропуска or a virtual telephone exchange. One of the detainees has already appealed the measure of restraint.
A virtual PBX is a cloud-based automatic telephone exchange that provides voice communication over the Internet without the need for physical servers and wires. According to investigators, the use of this technology to commit a crime was the basis for initiating the case.
"The motion for the imposition of a measure of restraint in the form of detention has been granted," the court cards of each suspect state. They are charged with a crime under Part 3 of Article 274.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for up to six years of imprisonment and a fine of up to two million rubles.
According to the investigation, one of the defendants was previously brought to administrative and criminal liability for crimes against the person. The second is a resident of Khimki, who was deprived of his driver's license for drunk driving. The third is an entrepreneur from the Sverdlovsk region, who previously traded and repaired computer equipment.
According to the investigation, a resident of Khimki received an offer to earn money by visiting the offices of telecom operators and, using fake powers of attorney, concluding contracts for the provision of communication services. He transferred the received subscriber numbers to third parties, for which he was promised payment in the amount of 9 thousand rubles for each contract. The attacker was detained by officers of the UBK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia under the control of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Main Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow. During the search, smartphones, SIM cards, documents and other evidence were seized.
The new article in the Criminal Code appeared on July 31, 2025. Article 274.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which regulates the organization of activities for the transfer of subscriber numbers in violation of the law, came into force on September 1. On the eve of this, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation initiated the first criminal case.
