The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed sanctions against Garantex for enabling ransomware and cybercrime by processing over $100 million linked to illegal activities. Sanctions were also placed on Garantex's successor, Grinex, and several executives. Notable sanctions include co-founders Sergey Mendeleev, Aleksandr Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky. Garantex was initially sanctioned in April 2022 for its connections to darknet markets, with an estimated 82% of its volume linked to sanctioned entities. The U.S. emphasizes that cryptocurrency misuse threatens national security and legitimate business reputations.
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.
Collection
[
|
...
]