15.08.2025 15:11
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) levied sanctions on a sprawling network Thursday. This network, encompassing companies, exchanges, and key executives, was implicated in assisting Russia's efforts to circumvent international sanctions. The implicated entities are connected to the defunct Russian cryptocurrency exchange, Garantex, and the ruble-backed stablecoin, A7A5.
Garantex, established in 2019 and previously licensed in Estonia, facilitated over $100 million in transactions linked to ransomware and illicit darknet activities, according to OFAC. Following a joint operation with German and Finnish law enforcement that resulted in the seizure of its domain and $26 million in March, a successor exchange, Grinex, swiftly emerged to continue operations, further highlighting the network's determination to evade sanctions. OFAC’s statement revealed that Grinex actively transferred funds from Garantex, leveraging the A7A5 token to reinstate access following the initial seizures.
The A7A5 stablecoin, issued by Kyrgyzstan-based Old Vector, served Russian users of the cross-border payment platform A7 LLC. Significantly, its backing included Russia's state-owned Promsvyazbank (PSB), already under sanctions for its involvement in defense industry financing, and Ilan Shor, a Moldovan politician convicted in a massive $1 billion bank fraud case, as reported by the Centre for Information Resilience. This revelation underscored the deeply problematic nature of the A7A5 stablecoin and its connection to sanctioned entities.
Consequently, OFAC imposed sanctions on Old Vector, A7 LLC, its subsidiaries A71 and A7 Agent, effectively barring them from the U.S. dollar financial system. American citizens are now prohibited from any interaction with these entities or over a dozen associated cryptocurrency addresses. Furthermore, key Garantex executives—Sergey Mendeleev, Aleksandr Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky—along with Mendeleev's companies, InDeFi Bank and Exved, faced sanctions for allegedly facilitating crypto transactions on behalf of sanctioned Russian businesses.
This coordinated action, involving the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI, aims to disrupt the flow of digital assets used for ransomware attacks and sanctions evasion. Treasury officials stressed the significance of this operation in safeguarding national security and protecting the integrity of the global financial system from the corrosive effects of illicit cryptocurrency activity. The move underscores the growing determination to counter the misuse of cryptocurrencies for malicious purposes.
