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The US and UK authorities are investigating USDT transfers worth $20 billion through the Russian exchange Garantex as part of the investigation. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to informed sources.
According to them, the inspection is carried out as part of the fight against evasion of sanctions.
All stablecoin transactions were conducted after April 2022, when Garantex was added to the US sanctions list.
Tether, for its part, said that it is working with law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with the requirements. Sources noted that the issuer of the stablecoin did not receive any suggestions of wrongdoing.
The total capitalization of Tether at the time of writing is $104 billion, according to CoinGecko. Thus, according to the US and UK authorities, a fifth of all coins in circulation passed through Garantex.
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The new investigation is fraught with more malicious tracking of deposit addresses of Garantex users and counterparties, as well as additional sanctions. This was stated in the comments of ForkLog by the founder and CEO of BitOK Dmitry Machikhin.
"That is, they will pursue in every possible way, throw accusations, real and unreal. We need to be prepared for this and adapt to it somehow. And first of all, abandon foreign AML systems in favor of a national standard, " he said.
According to the expert, this will avoid linking trading platforms to Russian users. However, this will not be a panacea if the real involvement of Garantex in illegal operations is revealed.
"If there are some illegal things there-it is crime, not political sanctions — then the consequences can be much more serious and no AML will save you here," Machikhin concluded.
Anton Shkurenko, a technical consultant for the SmartSwap project, believes that the United States traditionally considers people outside its borders "as potential criminals."
"Both platform owners and their customers who have provided their passport data suffer from their decisions. Blocking of assets, including Tether on non-custodial wallets, occurs within the limits of US laws, but it is often unclear for what reasons you may be charged," he said.
Recall, according to OFAC, in April 2022, an analysis of known Garantex transactions showed that operations worth more than $100 million were associated with illegal entities and darknet marketplaces. Of these, almost $6 million came from the Russian hacker group Conti and about $2.6 million from Hydra.
In October 2023, Garantex commented on the allegations of "funding Hamas" made in the Elliptic study.
According to them, the inspection is carried out as part of the fight against evasion of sanctions.
All stablecoin transactions were conducted after April 2022, when Garantex was added to the US sanctions list.
Tether, for its part, said that it is working with law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with the requirements. Sources noted that the issuer of the stablecoin did not receive any suggestions of wrongdoing.
The total capitalization of Tether at the time of writing is $104 billion, according to CoinGecko. Thus, according to the US and UK authorities, a fifth of all coins in circulation passed through Garantex.
*****
The new investigation is fraught with more malicious tracking of deposit addresses of Garantex users and counterparties, as well as additional sanctions. This was stated in the comments of ForkLog by the founder and CEO of BitOK Dmitry Machikhin.
"That is, they will pursue in every possible way, throw accusations, real and unreal. We need to be prepared for this and adapt to it somehow. And first of all, abandon foreign AML systems in favor of a national standard, " he said.
According to the expert, this will avoid linking trading platforms to Russian users. However, this will not be a panacea if the real involvement of Garantex in illegal operations is revealed.
"If there are some illegal things there-it is crime, not political sanctions — then the consequences can be much more serious and no AML will save you here," Machikhin concluded.
Anton Shkurenko, a technical consultant for the SmartSwap project, believes that the United States traditionally considers people outside its borders "as potential criminals."
"Both platform owners and their customers who have provided their passport data suffer from their decisions. Blocking of assets, including Tether on non-custodial wallets, occurs within the limits of US laws, but it is often unclear for what reasons you may be charged," he said.
Recall, according to OFAC, in April 2022, an analysis of known Garantex transactions showed that operations worth more than $100 million were associated with illegal entities and darknet marketplaces. Of these, almost $6 million came from the Russian hacker group Conti and about $2.6 million from Hydra.
In October 2023, Garantex commented on the allegations of "funding Hamas" made in the Elliptic study.
