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- The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 16 entities and 16 individuals under Russian networks.
- Several of them were dealing with cryptocurrencies to finance their activities.
- SES, Raza, 6 Pakistani nationals, and other related individuals are now listed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Person List.
The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action against the Russian network’s 16 entities and 16 individuals for trying to tamper with the integrity of presidential elections. Apparently, many of the 32 accused were dealing with cryptocurrencies to finance their activities.
The crypto-dealing Offenders
The 2020 U.S. elections ended months ago, but the government is still tying loose ends. The list of offenders include:
- SouthFront, an English website answerable to Russia’s Federal Security Service.
- Association for Free Research and International Cooperation (AFRIC) operated with a pro-Africa front but actually used to manipulate African politics.
- Second Eye Solution (SES), a company, availing fraudulent identity documents.
- Mujtaba Ali Raza, a Pakistan-based organization, owning SES.
SouthFront received Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ethereum (ETH), with a combined worth of $12,146; AFRIC dealt in Zcash (ZEC), and Dash (DASH) wallets and Raza’s assets in BTC and Litecoin (LTC) surpassed $14,000. But the one powered the most with a supply exceeding $2.5 million was SES, with over 31,000 transactions received since 2013.
Second Eye Solutions didn’t see that coming!
SES creates synthetic identification documents for $30 to $80 apiece, designing deceiving documents in JPEG format, which apparently will fool remote photo or video-based KYC checks. Along with online payment services like Payoneer, it accepts BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC too.
A Russian internet trolling group, Internet Research Agency (IRA), allegedly created troll farms via fake IDs from SES and ran disinformation campaigns sabotaging the 2016 elections. The IRA was already sanctioned, and now SES, Raza, 6 Pakistani nationals, and other related individuals are listed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, locking all their assets and banning them from ever partaking in business with the U.S. citizens.
SES has an active Bitcoin address at a significant exchange and gains crypto through darknet markets, mixers, and several high-risk exchanges. But the sanction might soon render it inaccessible. Even their website isn’t active anymore, showing “WE ARE NO MORE TAKING ORDERS.”
Attempt to Sabotage U.S. Democracy won’t Go Unpunished
The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged this as the “start of a new U.S. campaign against Russian malign behavior.” Adding, the Treasury is on the lookout for any and all “Russian leaders, officials, intelligence services, and their proxies” trying to hinder the “U.S. democracy.”
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
