- The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned two crypto wallets belonging to Russian sanctions evaders
- Jonatan Zimenkov was added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list for aiding the Russian war in Ukraine
- Some $16 million worth of cryptocurrencies passed through the wallets in February last year
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added two cryptocurrency wallets linked to a Russian sanctions evasion network to its list of Specially Designated Nationals. The Treasury published an announcement yesterday in which it said that it intends to target sanctions evasion globally and will impose full blocking sanctions on 22 individuals, including Jonatan Zimenkov, a Russian national with access to at least one Bitcoin and one Ethereum wallet.
OFAC Crypto Wallet Sanctions Increase
Yesterday’s announcement is the latest in a line of cryptocurrency sanctions from the Treasury, including its infamous ban on mixing service Tornado Cash, with this particular action coming as “part of the U.S. strategy to methodically and intensively target sanctions evasion efforts around the globe, close down key backfilling channels, expose facilitators and enablers, and limit Russia’s access to revenue needed to wage its brutal war in Ukraine.”
The Treasury says that Jonatan is the son of arms dealer Igor Zimenkov who operates the sanctions evasion network, which is accused of supplying technology to a Russian company after their invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and supporting sanctioned state-owned Russian defense entities including Rosoboronexport and Rostec.
$16 Million in ETH Passed Through the Wallet in 2022
The Bitcoin address published by Treasury officials is currently and shows only $237.86 worth of transactions to date, but the Ethereum address has been much more active – four transactions totaling roughly $16 million at the time passed through the wallet in early February, around the time of the Ukraine invasion.
