The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three cryptocurrency exchanges for providing services used to circumvent economic restrictions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
These include Bitpapa IC FZC LLC, Crypto Explorer DMCC (AWEX) and Obshchestvo S Ogranichennoy Otvetstvennostyu Tsentr Obrabotki Elektronnykh Platezhey (TOEP).
In total, the designations cover 13 entities and 2 individuals operating in Russia’s financial services and technology sectors.
“Many of the individuals and entities designated today facilitated transactions or provided other services that helped OFAC-designated entities evade sanctions,” the U.S. Treasury Department said, adding that the action was intended to “target companies that serve Russia’s core financial infrastructure.” , and restrict Russia’s use of international financial infrastructure.” system to further wage war against Ukraine. “
Bitpapa, which provides virtual currency exchange services to Russian nationals, is accused of facilitating millions of dollars worth of transactions with sanctioned Russian entities Hydra Market and Garantex.
The Treasury said Crypto Explorer provides currency exchange services between virtual currencies, rubles and UAE dirhams.
“AWEX provides cash services from its offices in Moscow and Dubai and deposits funds to credit cards linked to OFAC-designated Russian banks such as Sberbank and Alfa-Bank,” it added.
Also sanctioned is another virtual currency exchange operated by TOEP, which is said to be able to provide digital payments in rubles and virtual currencies to sanctioned entities such as Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and Hydra Market.
The list of penalties also includes Moscow-based fintech companies such as B-Crypto, Masterchain and Laitkhaus, which work with sanctioned Russian banks to issue, exchange and transfer cryptocurrency assets.
Under the sanctions, all property and interests in the United States related to designated individuals and entities will be frozen. In addition, entities in which one or more blocked persons own directly or indirectly at least 50% of the shares will also be blocked.
“Russia is increasingly turning to alternative payment mechanisms to circumvent U.S. sanctions and continue to fund its war against Ukraine,” said Brian E. Nelson, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
“As the Kremlin seeks to exploit entities in the fintech space, the Treasury Department will continue to expose and disrupt companies seeking to help sanctioned Russian financial institutions reconnect to the global financial system.”
