The post U.S. Treasury Sanctions 5 People, 4 Entities Tied to Russian Money Laundering Group appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned five individuals and four entities tied to the TGR Group, a sophisticated international sanctions evasion service catering to Russian elites. The TGR Group, believed to be led by Ukrainian national George Rossi, used cryptocurrencies — including Tether (USDT) — to help clients, including Russian oligarchs, ransomware gangs and international crime syndicates, obfuscate their illicit activities via a variety of money laundering techniques (including the in-person trading of cash for cryptocurrency and pre-paid credit cards) in order to get around international sanctions, according to a Wednesday press release from the Treasury Department. Tether, the issuer of the dollar-pegged stablecoin, froze $8 million worth of tokens held in more than 30 wallets on the same day. “Through the TGR Group, Russian elites sought to exploit digital assets — in particular U.S. dollar backed stablecoins — to evade U.S. and international sanctions, further enriching themselves and the Kremlin,” Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in a statement. “The United States, alongside our allies and partners, remains committed to disrupting any effort by Russia to use digital assets or other illicit financial schemes to accrue, store and transfer their ill-gotten gains.” The sanctions are the result of a joint investigation with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the government of the United Arab Emirates and two other U.S. agencies — the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The investigation, dubbed Operation Destabilise by the NCA, has resulted in more than 80 arrests and the seizure of more than $25 million in cash and cryptocurrency. Rossi and two of his associates — Russian national Elena Chirkinyan and Latvian national Andrejs Bradens — were included in Wednesday’s sanctions. Two other Russians tied to already-sanctioned Ekaterina Zhdanova (the leader of the Russian…

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Filed under: News - @ December 4, 2024 9:17 pm