A report found that sanctioned Russians are finding ways to hide and launder their wealth and assets from regulators.
Well-connected Russians who have been looking to hide sources of their wealth from international sanctions have stepped up efforts to launder those funds through cryptocurrencies, a new report said Wednesday.
Watchdog crypto firm Elliptic said its research showed millions of crypto addresses to criminal activity, and 400 virtual asset service providers where rubles can be used to buy cryptocurrencies.
“We have directly linked more than 15 million crypto addresses to criminal activity with a nexus in Russia,” Simone Maini, chief executive of Elliptic, said in a blog post.
“Digital asset businesses and exchanges can screen transactions and wallets for exposure to this activity and ensure that the proceeds cannot be laundered.”
Both methods circumvent sanctions placed on Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin’s administration or who have been identified playing a part in the country’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
The report is one of the first tangible signs that Russians under pressure from sanctions from the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and a growing list of other nations are finding ways to hide and launder their wealth and assets from regulators.
Maini said that Elliptic is “actively investigating” cryptoasset wallets that the organization said can be linked to “Russian officials and oligarchs subject to sanctions.”
“We have identified several hundred thousand crypto addresses linked to Russia-based sanctioned actors,” she said. “This goes beyond those included in sanctions lists to include other addresses that we have been able to associate with these actors through our own analysis.”
