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Promote with Leviathan NewsU.S. federal prosecutors have unsealed a 22‑count indictment against Iurii Gugnin, a 38‑year‑old Russian citizen living in New York, alleging he used his New York–based crypto payments business Evita to covertly move more than $500 million – and approximately $530 million between June 2023 and January 2025 – through the U.S. financial system for overseas clients, including Russian entities subject to U.S. sanctions and export controls. According to the Justice Department, Gugnin, acting through Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc., received large volumes of funds in Tether (USDT) and other currencies, laundered them through crypto wallets and U.S. bank accounts, and then made U.S. dollar and other fiat payments while concealing the true origin, ownership, and purpose of the transactions. The indictment charges Gugnin with wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, failing to implement an effective anti–money laundering (AML) program, failing to file suspicious activity reports (SARs), money laundering, and related conspiracy counts. Prosecutors allege that Gugnin marketed Evita as a cross‑border crypto payments and import‑export facilitator but in practice used it as a channel for foreign customers – some holding funds at sanctioned Russian banks – to bypass U.S. sanctions and export controls by providing cryptocurrency that was then converted and routed through U.S. financial institutions. The case underscores the Justice Department’s focus on the use of stablecoins and crypto payment firms to evade sanctions and export restrictions, and the expectation that such businesses maintain robust AML controls; if convicted, Gugnin faces maximum penalties of up to 30 years in prison per bank‑fraud count and significant additional exposure on the other charges.
AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.
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justice.gov ·
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