Photo: Nasha Niva
The United States of America added to the sanctions list two individuals and 18 legal entities that work in the financial services and technological sector of the Russian Federation and help the aggressor country evade sanctions.
This is reported by the US State Department .
Many of them offer services, in particular, to financial institutions, or abuse virtual assets to evade restrictive measures.
“Today’s action reaffirms the commitment of the G7 to limit Russia’s use of the international financial system to continue its war against Ukraine. It also demonstrates our continued efforts to identify companies that serve Russia’s core financial infrastructure. We will continue to take all necessary actions to hold them accountable those who contribute to Russia’s illegal war or profit from it,” the State Department said in a statement.
The list published by the US Treasury included, in particular:
- Joint-stock company B-Crypto is a Moscow fintech company that cooperates with Rosbank;
- “Masterchain” is a Moscow fintech company that has agreements on the issuance of digital financial assets with VTB Bank and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation;
- “Lighthouse” (Laitkhaus) is a company that cooperated with “Sberbank” and VTB Bank in the field of issuance, exchange and transfer of digital financial assets;
- “Atomaiz” (Atomaiz) is a registered operator of digital financial assets that is engaged in tokenization of precious metals and diamonds for Russian companies and is a partner of Rosbank and Radkombank;
- Tokentrust Holdings Ltd. , which is based in Cyprus and is the majority shareholder of Atomaiz
- “Web3 Technologies” and “Web3 Integrator” are Moscow technology companies that provide blockchain solutions and platforms for the Russian financial sector. Clients include Sberbank and Alfa-Bank;
- Ihor Kaigorodov – the majority shareholder of the companies “Web3 Technologies” and “Web3 Integrator”;
- “Electronic Payment Processing Center” – a company that manages a virtual currency exchange that allows digital payments in rubles and virtual currencies for Alfa-Bank and Hydra Market;
- Timur Bukanov – owner and director of the “Electronic Payment Processing Center”;
- Bitfingroup OÜ (Bitfingroup) is an Estonian company whose sole owner is Bukanov;
- “Bitpapa IC FZK” LLC (Bitpapa) is a company that manages the peer-to-peer exchange of virtual currencies and offers services to citizens of Russia. To date, it has conducted transactions worth millions of dollars with the Russian companies Hydra Market and Garantex;
- Crypto Explorer DMCC, under its brand name AWEX, operates a virtual currency exchange in Russia and the UAE that offers conversion between virtual currencies, rubles and UAE dirhams. AWEX offers cash service in its offices in Moscow and Dubai, and transfers funds to credit cards associated with Russian sanctioned banks;
- “Crypto Explorer” is a Russian company whose sole property is Crypto Explorer.