The US Department of Justice has announced that an indictment has been released against a Russian citizen, Iurii Gugnin (also known as Iurii Mashukov), who lives in New York.
Gugnin was accused of various crimes, including the use of his cryptocurrency company, Evita, to transfer $53 million through the US financial system in order to help Russian banks that are under sanctions. According to the indictment, he is the founder and president of American companies, Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc.
Gugnin converted funds received from Russian banks into US dollars or other fiat currencies, and then made payments through bank accounts in Manhattan on behalf of his foreign clients. At the same time, the sources of funds were hidden, which masked the audit trail and hid the true counterparts of the transactions. Between June 2023 and January 2025, Gugnin used Evita to facilitate the movement of approximately $530 million through the US financial system, most of which he received in the form of cryptocurrency stablecoin USDT.
According to the US Department of Justice, Russian banks under sanctions included Google’s clients, including PJSC Sberbank, PJSC Sovcombank, PJSC VTB Bank, and JSC Tinkoff Bank.
Gugnin had personal accounts at Alfa-Bank and Sberbank. If convicted, Gugnin faces a maximum of 30 years imprisonment for each count of banking fraud.
