Treasury Targets DPRK-Russia Banking Ties

The Treasury Department has designated a network of five entities and one individual – based in Russia and in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia – that have enabled and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and North Korea.

The latest action holds accountable parties that have assisted North Korean and Russian sanctions evasion and demonstrates Treasury’s commitment to exposing and disrupting networks that facilitate the funding of North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs and support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.

With mounting losses on the battlefield and deepening international isolation, Russia has become increasingly dependent on North Korea for weapons procurement and economic cooperation, Treasury said.

Treasury is targeting illicit financial schemes orchestrated by two North Korean state-run organizations, the Foreign Trade Bank and Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation, both of which are designated entities on the 1718 Sanctions List.

FTB and KKBC have continued to expand North Korea’s access to illicit financial networks with the assistance of the Russian Federation, Treasury said.

In a scheme orchestrated by the Central Bank of Russia, MRB Bank, based in Georgia’s South Ossetia region, acted as a cut-out for a designated Russian bank, TSMRBank, to establish a secret banking relationship with the FTB.

As a part of a separate scheme in late 2023, the US-designated Russian Financial Corporation Bank JSC, worked with FTB to establish a Moscow-based company, Stroytreyd LLC, to receive frozen North Korean funds held in defunct Russian banks.