The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged a Russian national and crypto executive with allegedly laundering more than $500 million worth of overseas payments through US banks and digital asset exchanges.
The DOJ alleges New York resident Iurii Gugnin used his crypto company, Evita, to move dirty money through the US for sanctioned Russian banks, which helped Russian individuals acquire sensitive US technology.
Gugnin, who also goes by the names Iurii Mashukov and George Goognin, allegedly had foreign customers who held assets in sanctioned Russian banks pay him in the top stablecoin, Tether’s USDT.
The DOJ says the crypto executive would then launder the USDT through digital asset wallets and US bank accounts, eventually converting it into dollars or other fiat currencies.
He then allegedly made payments through bank accounts in Manhattan on behalf of his foreign customers, obscuring the source of the funds and defrauding banks and exchanges in the process.
Gugnin, 38, was arrested in New York on Monday and charged with wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering compliance program, failing to file suspicious activity reports, money laundering and related conspiracy charges.
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