2 Russian Nationals Indicted, Sanctioned for Laundering Money in Illicit Finance Scheme
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Russian national Sergey Ivanov and virtual currency exchange Cryptex, which is operated by Ivanov. The move was announced concurrently with enforcement action from various U.S. and international enforcement agencies, including an indictment unsealed against Ivanov and fellow Russian national Timur Shakhmametov.
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Ivanov and Cryptex were sanctioned for engaging in a Russian illicit finance scheme. OFAC said the sanctions "exemplify how Treasury is leveraging international cooperation and all available tools to counter the ransomware threat and target Russian illicit financial activity."
Ivanov allegedly created Russian payment services UAPS, PinPays and PM2BTC, "which provided money transfer and laundering services directly to criminals," DOJ said.
The conspiracy to commit bank fraud came in relation to Ivanov's provision of payment processing services to "carding" website Rescator, while the money laundering conspiracy count came for laundering proceeds from the carding website Joker's Stash. DOJ described carding as the "unlawful acquisition of and trade in stolen credit and debit card information for fraudulent purposes." Rescator allegedly sold stolen card data from U.S. banks and personally identifiable information of U.S. citizens.