The Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday disclosed that it has filed charges against two former consultants of Coins.ph under the ownership of BETUR, Incorporated for hacking the company’s IT system stealing 12.2-million XRP amounting to a total of P340,745,027.93.

This comes as DoJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla stressed that agency’s mandate of upholding the Rule of Law and stressed that the same extends even in cyberspace.

In an 8-page Resolution, the panel of prosecutors charged the respondents identified as Vladimir Evgenevich Avdeev and Sergey Yaschuck for violation of Section 4 (a)(1) of Republic Act (RA) 10175 otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Vladimir was slapped with 23 counts with a bail of P120,000 for each count and three counts for Yaschuck with a bail of P120,000 for each count.

Complainant Coins.ph — an entity engaged in remittance, transmittal of money, foreign currency exchange and other money transactions — alleged that the malicious actor must have had a comprehensive grasp of its network infrastructure, secure access key protocols and server systems based from the recorded suspicious system logins.

Further, the respondents tried to swap and transfer the stolen funds through identified cryptocurrency services to obfuscate the origin/destination of money in an attempt to confuse investigators once their scheme is busted.

“Cybercriminals seem to have employed ways to keep up with modern technological trends to exploit the innocence of our people. Despite the government’s unwavering efforts to weed out undesirable elements in cyberspace, it is always better to stay vigilant on our own at all times,” said Remulla.