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US prosecutors have charged a cryptocurrency entrepreneur with sanctions evasion and export management violations, alleging he laundered greater than $500mn and helped Russians purchase delicate US expertise.
Iurii Gugnin, founding father of crypto funds firm Evita, was charged on Monday with wire and financial institution fraud, cash laundering and different offences, in response to courtroom paperwork unsealed in federal courtroom in Brooklyn. He was arrested and arraigned in New York, the Division of Justice mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Gugnin used his crypto funds firm to make funds on behalf of overseas clients for delicate US electronics, together with an American designed server that was topic to export controls, and likewise laundered funds to buy elements for Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear expertise firm.
“Gugnin got here to the US and arrange a money-laundering operation underneath the guise of a cryptocurrency start-up, which he then used to evade sanctions and export controls and defraud US monetary establishments,” US lawyer Joseph Nocella mentioned in an announcement.
In a letter to a New York choose on Monday, prosecutors mentioned Gugnin had “connections with authorities officers in Russia and Iran who may assist facilitate his flight from prosecution, together with members of Russia’s intelligence providers”.
A consultant for Gugnin didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
