2025-06-10T14: 35: 15Z
- Federal prosecutors accused Iurii Gugnin of using his crypto company to launder $ 530 million.
- GUGNIN, CEO of Evita Pay, is accused by the MJ of treating Stablecoin TETHER transactions.
- The complaint said Gugnin used his business to “help Russian end users acquire sensitive American technology”.
The United States Ministry of Justice charged the CEO of a cryptocurrency company of a money laundering program that helped Russian banks escape sanctions.
An ad Of the department said on Monday that Iurii Gugnin, the CEO of Evita Pay, channel $ 530 million in foreign payments through banks and crypto exchanges while concealing the objective and the source of transactions.
“The accused is responsible for transforming a cryptocurrency company into a secret pipeline for dirty money, to move more than half a billion dollars via the American financial system to help Russian banks sanctioned and help Russian users to acquire sensitive American technology,” said John A. Eisenberg, general assistant for national security.
The program took place from June 2023 to January 2025 and involved the treatment of TETHER payments – one of the largest stablescoins labeled in dollars – for Russian customers linked to black list banks, including VTB and SberBank.
“To perform the diet, Gugnin has defrained various banks and cryptocurrency exchanges through which he converted funds and made wire transfers,” said the MJ press release. “Gugnin has lied several times to these banks and exchanges, telling them that Evita did not conduct her activities with entities in Russia and has not dealt with sanctioned entities.”
GUGNIN was arrested Monday in Manhattan and faced 22 charges related to wire and banking fraud, operating a business transmission company without license and not implementing an effective anti-whiteness compliance program.
The DOJ declaration also indicates that Gugnin Internet Research Requests included things like “how to know if there is an investigation against you” and “we are money laundering”.
If it is condemned, Gugnin could incur life prison, with a maximum of 30 years for each chief of fraud of banks, 20 years for each chief of fraud per thread and 10 years for having omitted to implement anti-flowancs.
