It appears that not all crypto players get a pass in today’s evolving regulatory regime. June 9, Federal prosecutors have unsealed a 22-count indictment charging a Russian national residing in New York, with operating an unlicensed cross-border money laundering scheme through his cryptocurrency firms to funnel over $530 million through the U.S. financial system in violation of U.S. sanctions, export controls, and anti-money laundering laws.
Iurii Gugnin,, also known as Iurii Mashukov and George Goognin, was arrested and arraigned in the Eastern District of New York on June 6. Prosecutors allege that between 2022 and 2025, Gugnin helped sanctioned Russian clients covertly access U.S. dollars and procure sensitive U.S.-origin technology, including export-controlled microelectronics and servers used in support of Russia’s state nuclear enterprise, Rosatom.
“The defendant is charged with turning a cryptocurrency company into a covert pipeline for dirty money,” said Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg of the National Security Division. “Over half a billion dollars flowed through U.S. financial institutions in a deliberate effort to aid sanctioned Russian banks and acquire sensitive U.S. technology.”
The indictment alleges that Gugnin operated Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc. as an international financial channel for foreign clients—many based in Russia, China, the UAE, and Türkiye—facilitating payments in both fiat currency and stablecoins such as Tether (USDT). Despite claiming that Evita did not transact with sanctioned jurisdictions, Gugnin “frequently transacted with Russian entities and customers,” concealing true counterparties and “digitally ‘whiting out’” Russian identities on invoices.
“Gugnin repeatedly lied to financial institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr.. “He fraudulently obtained a Florida money transmitter license and deceived crypto exchanges into processing transactions, concealing the true origin and purpose of the funds.”
Among the more brazen acts cited in the indictment:
• March 2024: Gugnin received over $104,000 in USDT traced to sanctioned Russian banks Sberbank and Sovcombank, converted the funds into U.S. dollars through a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, and wired $100,000 to a South Korean company for the benefit of a Moscow-based supplier of Rosatom.
• April 2024: Gugnin facilitated an $81,380 payment for a rack server classified under ECCN 5A992.c—a controlled item requiring export licenses for Russia—after manipulating metadata to obscure the true Moscow-based end-user.
According to prosecutors, Gugnin also conducted a series of web searches indicative of guilty knowledge, including “money laundering penalties US,” “OFAC sanctions,” and “how to know if there is an investigation against you.”
While residing in the U.S., Gugnin personally maintained accounts at OFAC-sanctioned Sberbank and Alfa-Bank. The indictment states that between July 2022 and December 2022, he executed at least 44 transactions through Alfa-Bank and continued to use Sberbank into 2024, including transferring nearly 50,000 rubles to a .ru email address.
“In emails, ledger entries, and search history, the defendant showed both knowledge of and intent to circumvent U.S. export laws and sanctions,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “Gugnin’s conduct exemplifies how cryptocurrency can be exploited to undermine national security.”
Gugnin presented Evita as compliant with the Bank Secrecy Act and FinCEN regulations but, according to the indictment, “willfully conducted substantial business with customers in Russia and dealt in funds subject to blocking sanctions.”
He falsely certified that Evita screened clients against OFAC’s SDN list and maintained robust “know-your-customer” policies, while in fact engaging in structured transactions to evade detection. For example, in July 2024, Gugnin split a $1.9 million wire into two transactions to avoid triggering compliance reviews at a U.S. bank. “Next time I will cut incoming wires by $1.25m each,” he told an exchange representative.
Gugnin also failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports, including for a transaction involving $189,737 in USDT received from Garantex, a sanctioned Russian crypto exchange.
“This defendant intentionally circumvented U.S. regulatory safeguards that are in place to protect the financial system from abuse by foreign adversaries,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
The indictment charges include:
• Wire Fraud Conspiracy (Count 1)
• Wire Fraud (Counts 2–4)
• Bank Fraud (Counts 5–6)
• Conspiracy to Defraud the United States (Count 7)
• Conspiracy and Violations of IEEPA (Counts 8–10)
• Unlicensed Money Transmission (Count 11)
• Failure to Implement AML Program (Count 12)
• Failure to File Suspicious Activity Reports (Counts 13–16)
• Money Laundering Conspiracy and Transactions (Counts 17–22)
Gugnin holds a Ph.D. in Economics from a Russian university, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before Evita, he co-founded Karma, a defunct blockchain-based SME lending platform. He faces up to 30 years per bank fraud count, 20 years per wire fraud, IEEPA, and laundering count, and 10 years for AML and SAR violations.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skurnik (EDNY) and Trial Attorney Dallas Kaplan of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The investigation was led by the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, co-directed by the Departments of Justice and Commerce to safeguard sensitive U.S. technologies.
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