Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged Iurii Gugnin, the founding father of a US-based crypto funds firm, with orchestrating a complicated worldwide cash laundering operation that allegedly moved over $530 million on behalf of sanctioned Russian banks and entities.
In accordance with a CNBC report on the matter, the 38-year-old Russian nationwide, residing in Manhattan, was arrested and arraigned on Monday, the place he was ordered to be held with out bail pending trial.
‘A Covert Pipeline For Soiled Cash’
Gugnin faces a 22-count indictment that features fees of wire and financial institution fraud, violations of US sanctions, cash laundering, and failing to implement mandated anti-money laundering protocols. Assistant Legal professional Normal Eisenberg acknowledged:
The defendant is charged with turning a cryptocurrency firm right into a covert pipeline for soiled cash, shifting over half a billion {dollars} by the US monetary system to assist sanctioned Russian banks and assist Russian end-users purchase delicate US know-how.
In accordance with prosecutors, Gugnin utilized his firms—Evita Investments and Evita Pay—to course of vital funds whereas obscuring the origins and functions of the funds. Between June 2023 and January 2025, he allegedly funneled cash by varied US banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, primarily utilizing Tether’s USDT stablecoin.
The indictment reveals that Gugnin’s purchasers included people and companies related to sanctioned Russian establishments equivalent to Sberbank, VTB Financial institution, Sovcombank, Tinkoff, and the state-owned nuclear vitality agency, Rosatom.
Crypto Government Faces Up To 30 Years In Jail
To execute this scheme, Gugnin allegedly misrepresented the character of his enterprise, falsified compliance paperwork, and deceived banks and digital asset platforms concerning his connections to Russia.
Prosecutors allege he hid the supply of the funds by shell accounts and altered over 80 invoices, digitally eradicating the identities of Russian counterparties.
Investigators additionally uncovered web searches that point out Gugnin was conscious of the scrutiny he confronted, together with queries like “the right way to know if there’s an investigation towards you” and “cash laundering penalties within the US”
Notably, the Justice Division has highlighted that Gugnin maintained direct connections with members of Russia’s intelligence providers and officers in Iran—nations that don’t extradite people to the US. He’s additionally accused of facilitating the export of delicate US know-how to Russian purchasers, together with managed anti-terrorism servers.
If convicted on financial institution fraud fees alone, the crypto government faces a statutory most sentence of 30 years in jail. Nonetheless, ought to he be discovered responsible on all counts, he may face a for much longer consecutive sentence that would lengthen past his lifetime, underscoring the severity of the fees towards him.
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