The U.S. has sanctions on 13 Russia-linked fintech companies and two individuals for offering cryptocurrency services used to evade economic restrictions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury Department’s new sanctions relate to Russian companies designated by the U.S. on Monday have “either helped build or operate blockchain-based services or enabled virtual currency payments in the Russian financial sector, thus enabling potential sanctions evasion.”
The list includes Moscow-based fintech companies such as B-Crypto, Masterchain and Laitkhaus, which have partnered with sanctioned Russian banks to issue, exchange and transfer digital financial assets. Another designated entity, Atomaiz, has been involved in tokenizing precious metals and diamonds for Russian companies.
A fintech company, operating under the business names Netexchange and Netex24, along with its owner and director, Timur Bukanov, has been sanctioned for running a virtual currency exchange, which facilitated digital payments in Russian rubles and virtual currencies to sanctioned entities, such as Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and Hydra Market.
Hydra Market was a darknet marketplace that sold narcotics, stolen financial information and money laundering services. It was shut down by U.S. and German law enforcement in April 2022. the new sanctions seek all property and interests of the designated entities in the U.S.’s possession or control were blocked, and any transactions with them are prohibited.
Last week, the U.S. also sanctioned two Russian nationals and two companies for a disinformation campaign that allegedly sought to “impersonate legitimate media outlets.” According to the statement by the U.S. Treasury Department, the sanctions individuals are involved in a “persistent foreign malign influence campaign at the direction of the Russian Presidential Administration.”
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer whose firm represents whistleblowers in, among other things Securities Exchange Act whistleblower cases, involving evasion by public corporations of US sanctions against China, Iran and Russia and other sanctioned entities and he can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
