The Trump administration on Thursday sanctioned a crypto exchange for allegedly facilitating payments for Russia-linked cybercriminals.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it sanctioned Garantex Europe OU, which it accused of facilitating over $100 million in payments for “notorious ransomware actors and other cybercriminals.” The exchange had recently been used to facilitate payments to Russia-linked hackers.
“Digital assets play a crucial role in global innovation and economic development, and the United States will not tolerate abuse of this industry to support cybercrime and sanctions evasion. Exploiting cryptocurrency exchanges to launder money and facilitate ransomware attacks not only threatens our national security, but also tarnishes the reputations of legitimate virtual asset service providers,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley said.
“By exposing these malicious actors, Treasury remains committed to and supportive of the digital asset industry’s integrity,” he added.
In addition to Garantex, OFAC also sanctioned Grinex, an exchange founded as a successor to Garantex to avoid previous sanctions. Three Garantex executives and six linked companies in Russia and Kyrgyzstan were also sanctioned.
The sanctions are only the latest move in the U.S. campaign against Garantex. The Department of Justice unsealed indictments against its co-owners, Aleksandr Mira and Aleksej Besciokov, in March. At the request of the U.S., the Lithuanian Besciokov was arrested by India days later.
Garantex is known to be a preferred method for payment of many illicit groups, including gangs, hackers, and the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
