Crypto Company Founder Charged with Sanctions Evasion and Fraud
On Monday, June 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a 22-count indictment was unsealed, charging Iurii Gugnin, a 38-year-old New York resident and Russian citizen, with multiple offenses related to his cryptocurrency payment company, Evita.
The charges include wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, failing to file suspicious activity reports, money laundering, and related conspiracy charges. Gugnin, also known as Iurii Mashukov and George Goognin, was arrested and arraigned in New York on the same day.
According to court documents, Gugnin, the founder, president, treasurer, and compliance officer of Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc., collectively referred to as Evita, allegedly used the company to facilitate over $530 million in transactions through U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges between June 2023 and January 2025.
The indictment alleges that Gugnin enabled foreign customers, many holding funds at sanctioned Russian banks such as PJSC Sberbank, PJSC Sovcombank, PJSC VTB Bank, and JSC Tinkoff Bank, to transfer cryptocurrency, primarily Tether (USDT), to Evita. He then converted these funds into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies and made payments on behalf of these customers through bank accounts in Manhattan, obscuring the sources and counterparties of the transactions.
The DOJ alleges that Gugnin misled U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges by falsely claiming that Evita did not conduct business with Russian entities or sanctioned parties. In reality, he allegedly facilitated payments involving sanctioned Russian banks and maintained personal accounts at two such institutions, JSC Alfa-Bank and PJSC Sberbank, while residing in the United States.
Additionally, Gugnin is accused of enabling foreign customers to procure sensitive U.S. technology, including an export-controlled server, and laundering funds for a Moscow-based supplier to purchase parts for Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear technology company. To conceal these activities, he allegedly altered invoices by removing the names and addresses of his Russian customers.
The indictment further claims that Gugnin failed to implement Evita’s anti-money laundering program and neglected to file required suspicious activity reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Despite registering Evita Pay as a money transmitter with FinCEN and the state of Florida, he allegedly provided false information about the company’s operations to obtain a state license, which he used to induce a cryptocurrency exchange to process transactions.
Evidence presented in the indictment includes web searches conducted by Gugnin, such as “how to know if there is an investigation against you” and “money laundering penalties US,” indicating his awareness of the illegality of his actions.
If convicted, Gugnin faces up to 30 years in prison for each bank fraud count, 20 years for each wire fraud, IEEPA, money laundering, and related conspiracy count, 10 years for failing to implement an anti-money laundering program and file suspicious activity reports, and five years for conspiracy to defraud the United States and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
