The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Yuri Gugnin, a Russian citizen and resident of New York, for laundering $530 million through his own cryptocurrency firm, Evita. The crimes took place from June 2023 to January 2025.
Gugnin faces 22 charges, including bank fraud, sanctions evasion, and export control violations.
Gugin, who is 38 years old, is also known as Yuri Mashukov and George Goognin. He used his cryptocurrency company, Evita, to funnel $530 million in foreign payments through U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, while concealing the source and purpose of the transactions.
According to court documents, Gugnin is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering compliance program, failure to file suspicious activity reports, money laundering, and related conspiracy charges. Gugnin was arrested on June 9.
The Russian came to the United States and laundered money under the guise of a cryptocurrency startup, which he then used to avoid sanctions and export controls and defraud American financial institutions.
According to the indictment, Gugnin is the founder, president, treasurer, and compliance officer of Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc. He used both companies to allow foreign clients — many of whom held funds in sanctioned Russian banks — to provide him with cryptocurrency, which he then laundered through cryptocurrency wallets and U.S. bank accounts. Gugnin eventually converted the funds into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies and then made payments through bank accounts in Manhattan on behalf of his foreign clients. The sources of the funds were concealed. Most of the funds were transferred through Tether USDT stablecoins.
The Russian repeatedly lied to American banks and exchanges, telling them that Evita did not do business with organizations in Russia and did not deal with sanctioned organizations. In fact, many of Gugnin’s clients were located in Russia, and he facilitated payments with funds held at PJSC «Sberbank», PJSC «Sovcombank», PJSC «VTB Bank», and JSC «Tinkoff Bank». Gugnin had personal accounts at two sanctioned Russian banks, JSC «Alfa-Bank» and PJSC «Sberbank», with which he conducted transactions while living in the United States.
If convicted, Gugnin faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for each count of bank fraud; a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud, IEEPA, money laundering and related conspiracy counts; a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for failure to implement an effective anti-money laundering program and failure to report suspicious activity; and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Source: Justice.gov