PSB Bank Seeks Runets Bankruptcy Over 773 Million Rubles

PSB Bank has asked a Russian court to declare Bitcoin mining company founder Igor Runets personally bankrupt over a claim of about 773 million rubles. In the petition described by PSB, Runets guaranteed a loan to BitRiver-B and is jointly liable because the borrower “did not repay on schedule.”

Runets founded BitRiver, and BitRiver-B forms part of the BitRiver group. Some companies in the group have also entered bankruptcy observation proceedings. PSB’s claim therefore sits alongside insolvency procedures affecting other group entities, although the report does not name those companies or establish that every proceeding belongs to the same case.

What does PSB’s petition enforce?

PSB is asking the court to extend enforcement beyond BitRiver-B, the borrower, and toward Runets as guarantor. The requested order would place Runets into personal bankruptcy proceedings; it is not a ruling that he is already bankrupt.

The petition’s stated components are:

• A claim of about 773 million rubles.
• A loan made to BitRiver-B.
• Runets’s guarantee of that loan.
• Joint liability following the missed repayment.
• Personal bankruptcy as the requested remedy.

The legal target matters because PSB is not relying only on collection against the borrowing company. It is using the founder’s guarantee to seek a personal insolvency process. If the court grants the petition, Runets’s personal estate would become subject to claims handled through that process, rather than the matter ending with BitRiver-B alone.

PSB’s account identifies the 773 million rubles as the size of the claim, not as a sum already recovered. The report provides no breakdown into principal, interest, penalties or collateral, and no disclosure of cash recovered. The amount should therefore not be treated as an adjudicated loss or final judgment.

The report also omits the name of the Russian court, the case number, the filing date, the loan’s original terms and the repayment due date. It likewise provides no hearing date. Without those details, neither the procedural priority of PSB’s claim nor a firm enforcement window can be calculated.

What changes for BitRiver?

For the mining group, the immediate business consequence is an escalation of a financing dispute from a group borrower to the founder who guaranteed its debt. PSB is pursuing the guarantor while some group companies remain in bankruptcy observation proceedings. That combination can affect financing negotiations and creditor confidence, although the source reports no change in mining output, equipment control or employment status.

The report does not say whether those proceedings have interrupted mining, changed ownership of mining equipment, affected employee contracts or altered bitcoin production. It also identifies no mine location, mining pool, hash rate or chain-specific transaction. The case is a court-backed corporate credit dispute, not a reported theft, token exploit, bridge failure or wallet transfer.

For PSB and other creditors, the decisive issues are enforceability of the guarantee, the assets available in Runets’s personal estate and the position of claims against relevant BitRiver group companies. The source establishes none of those outcomes and reports no asset seizure, bitcoin sale, cash recovery or court-approved settlement.

It also describes no regulatory investigation, criminal proceeding or sanctions action; the enforcement route disclosed is PSB’s bankruptcy petition to a Russian court.

The next verifiable checkpoint is the court’s ruling on PSB’s petition and any schedule for creditor claims. No filing date, hearing date or enforcement deadline is provided, so the enforcement timetable remains unspecified until the court acts.