U.S. Treasury Department Targets 13 Russian Firms Allegedly Offering Crypto-Related Services To Avoid Sanctions
The US Government has named entities and individuals allegedly responsible for providing crypto products and services that aided in the evasion of sanctions on Russia.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says that it has “sanctioned thirteen entities and two individuals for operating in the financial services and technology sectors of the Russian Federation economy.”
According to the agency, many of the designated individuals and entities “facilitated transactions or offered other services that helped OFAC-designated entities evade sanctions.”
Among the designated entities include the Moscow-based fintech firm B-Crypto, which OFAC accuses of partnering with Rosbank to enable Russian exporters to make cross-border payments using crypto assets. Rosbank is a Russian commercial bank that is also under US sanctions.
Other designated entities are Moscow-based fintech firms Masterchain, Laitkhaus, and Atomaiz. Peer-to-peer crypto exchange Bitpapa and centralized digit asset exchange Crypto Explorer were also sanctioned.
Firms based outside Russia that were sanctioned include Eastern European companies such as the Cyprus-based Tokentrust Holdings and the Estonia-based Bitfingroup.
Blockchain technology firms Veb3 Integrator and Veb3 Tekhnologii as well as fintech firm TOEP which operates a crypto exchange were also placed on the list of entities supporting the evasion of sanctions by Russian firms and individuals. The two firms are based in Moscow.
The two sanctioned individuals are Igor Veniaminovich Kaigorodov, the majority shareholder of Veb3 Integrator and Veb3 Tekhnologii and Timur Evgenyevich Bukanov, the owner and director of TOEP.
While some of America’s economic and trade sanctions on Russia have existed for decades, some of the most severe ones were placed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
Last year in May, it was reported that the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance was being investigated by US authorities over possible violation of sanctions on Russia.
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