US DOJ Charged Defendant After Sending BTC To Sanctioned Country

The US DOJ Charged defendant after sending BTC to a sanctioned country as we can see more today in our latest Bitcoin news.

A federal judge wrote about using BTC to dodge sanctions:

“Like Jason Voorhees, the myth of virtual currency’s anonymity refuses to die.”

The US DOJ charged the defendant with criminal charges who sent more than $10 million worth of BTC in an attempt to bypass economic sanctions. So far, the defendant remains unnamed. In an opinion published on Friday, US Magistrate Judge Zia M Farugui explained the approval of the criminal complaint. This Is the first time the US filed charges in a sanctions case that involves crypto. The complaint remains sealed and alleges the defendant set up a payment processing company to transmit more than $10 million to the sanctioned country.

The US has quite a comprehensive economic sanction system for Syria, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Iran. As per the judge’s opinion, the investigators said the defendant bought and sold BTC using a US-based virtual currency exchange that was funded with fiat currency from a US bank account. The defendant used the US-based exchange account to send thousands of dollars to exchange accounts at which point they were accessed by someone with an IP related to a sanctioned country. Judge Faruqui wrote:

“The question is no longer whether the virtual currency is here to stay (i.e., FUD) but instead whether fiat currency regulations will keep pace with frictionless and transparent payments on the blockchain.”

The judge cited recent guidance from the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control which issued its first sanctions against the crypto mixer Blender.io after finding out links to North Koran hackers. Before that, OFAC reached settlements with BitPay and BitGo over sanction violations.
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The OFAC reached a $98,830 settlement with BitGo over e183 crypto sanctions violations between 2015 and 2019 but then it reached a $507,375 settlement with BitPay for 2102 sanctions relations. Earlier this year, Chainalysis rolled out a new tool that will help companies screen transactions for sanction compliance, as the CEO Michael Gronager noted:

“Now is the time for the industry to demonstrate that blockchains’ inherent transparency make cryptocurrency a powerful deterrent to sanctions evasion.”

Judge Faruqie seems to agree:

“Virtual currency is traceable. Yet like Jason Voorhees, the myth of virtual currency’s anonymity refuses to die. See: Friday the 13th (Paramount Pictures 1980).”