OFAC Sanctions Russian VC Exchange and Associated Companies, People
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week redesignated Garantex, a virtual currency exchange with operations in Moscow, and sanctioned other companies and people that it said are involved in malicious cyber activities.
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OFAC first sanctioned Garantex in 2022 for operating in Russia's financial services sector (see 2204060081), and it's now designating the exchange under its cyber-related sanctions authorities for its ties to malicious cyber-enabled activities. The agency said Garantex has "directly facilitated notorious ransomware actors and other cybercriminals," including by processing over $100 million in transactions linked to illegal activities since 2019.
OFAC also sanctioned Grinex, Garantex's successor, three executives of Garantex and six associated companies in Russia and Kyrgyzstan that have ties to Garantex. Those include Garantex co-owners Aleksandr Mira Serda and Pavel Karavatsky along with co-founder Sergey Mendeleev. The agency also sanctioned financial services firm Independent Decentralized Finance Smartbank and Ecosystem and payment platform Exved for being co-founded and controlled by Mendeleev. The two entities work to "facilitate cryptocurrency-mediated trade" between Russia and other countries to evade U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. also sanctioned Kyrgyzstani firm Old Vector, which worked with Garantex and others to create the A7A5 token, a stablecoin that Garantex gave to users who lost revenue due to law enforcement action against the exchange. The token was created for Russian customers of A7 Limited Liability Company, a Russian firm that "provides cross-border settlement platforms used for sanctions evasion," OFAC said. The agency sanctioned A7 and its subsidiaries A71 Limited Liability Company and A7 Agent Limited Liability Company, which it said are owned by sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Mironovich Shor and sanctioned Russian bank Promsvyazbank Public Joint Stock Company.