2 ex-consultants face raps over crypto hacking — DOJ

Two Russians were charged before a Taguig court for hacking a Philippine company's system and stealing XRP, a cryptocurrency and native token of an open source blockchain, worth P340.7 million, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Tuesday.

The DOJ said that it filed charges against two former consultants of Coins.ph for violation of Section 4 (a)(1) of Republic Act (RA) 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 before the Taguig Regional Trial Court.

One of them was charged with 23 counts of breaking the said law, while the other was charged with three counts. Bail was set at P120,000 for each count.

The company is involved in remittance, transmittal of money, foreign currency exchange, and other money transactions, according to the DOJ.

The charges stemmed from the complaint filed by the security team of the company.

The DOJ said the two were accused of trying to swap and transfer stolen funds through identified cryptocurrency services.

"It is the DOJ's mandate to assure the Rule of Law is upheld at all times, and this extends even in cyberspace," Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said in a statement. — VDV, GMA Integrated News