US Government Sanctions 2 Russian Crypto Platforms for Allegedly Facilitating Money Laundering
The US government has taken action against two Russians and two cryptocurrency exchanges allegedly involved in illicit Russian financial activities.
The Treasury, Justice, and State departments, along with international law enforcement agencies, were involved in the effort. The Treasury’s FinCEN has identified PM2BTC, a Russian crypto exchange, and Sergey Ivanov, who is linked to the exchange, as being involved in money laundering.
The Treasury’s OFAC has also imposed sanctions on Ivanov and another exchange, Cryptex. FinCEN alleges that PM2BTC is involved in processing proceeds from ransomware attacks and other illegal activities, with half of its operations being illicit.
Additionally, Chainalysis has found that PM2BTC shares wallet infrastructure with UAPS, an underground payment processing system.
