U.S. Sanctions Watchdog Alleges Russia-Linked Crypto Wallet Processed $5M
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rolled out a new massive wave of sanctions against Russian industrial companies, as well as people and entities that helped Russia move money while the country has been waging war in Ukraine. Among the 22 individuals and 104 entities in the sanctions list published Friday, there is one cryptocurrency wallet, first spotted by the blockchain intelligence company Elliptic.
The wallet on the Ethereum blockchain belongs to a 48-y.o. United Arab Emirates resident from Ireland, John Desmond Hanafin, according to OFAC. A wallet related to a company he led, according to the blockchain data, received over $5.2 million in the tether stablecoin (USDT) since the beginning of the war. According to OFAC, Hanafin helped high-net-worth Russian citizens obtain passports from other countries, as well as move money across borders while Russia has been cut off from major global payment networks by previous sanctions. It’s not clear for what purposes Hanafin and his company used crypto.
Source
https://t.me/DeFi_Ethereum
