The Justice Department charged a Russian cryptocurrency executive, Iurii Gugnin, with orchestrating a scheme to launder over $530 million on behalf of Russian clients aiming to circumvent U.S. sanctions and acquire “sensitive U.S. technology.”

According to the indictment unsealed on Monday, Gugnin, a Brooklyn resident who goes by various names including George Goognin and Iurii Mashukov, allegedly routed nearly half a billion dollars in transactions via U.S. Dollar Tether (USDT), a stablecoin, through entities he controlled.

Nuclear Technology

Gugnin is specifically charged with allegedly using his crypto companies to facilitate the purchase of materials intended for Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear technology corporation.

Russia-Ukraine War

Gugnin allegedly operated Evita Pay and Evita Investments, conceal the illicit nature of customer funds—primarily originating from major, sanctioned Russian financial institutions like Sberbank, VTB, and Tinkoff.

The scale of the alleged transaction was enormous: prosecutors detailed approximately $530 million in misdirected USDT payments further bolstering the argument that financial sanctions against Russia, imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, drove demand.

In response to Russia’s invasion, Western nations, spearheaded by the United States, implemented sweeping sanctions to isolate Moscow economically. This included severing access to the SWIFT global payments system and freezing Russian central bank assets, effectively closing the door to conventional international finance. As a result, tech-savvy sanctions circumvention.

Facing a 22-count federal indictment, Gugnin could be sentenced to decades of imprisonment upon conviction. These counts include wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions evasion under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg described Gugnin’s enterprise in stark terms, stating, “The defendant is charged with turning a cryptocurrency company into a covert pipeline for dirty money.”

Digital forensics also revealed a concerning pattern in Gugnin’s actions, uncovering internet search terms such as “how to know if there is an investigation against you” and queries regarding “money laundering penalties US,” raising questions about his awareness of the investigation.