On December 20, Tether blocked five cryptocurrency addresses on the Ethereum network, allegedly linked to the Russian financial pyramid “Finiko”. ChainArgos analysts stated this.
2/4 Based on the #Ethereum addresses, there are a handful of suspicious transfers that may or may not be linked to the #Finiko pyramid scheme, but otherwise nothing that appears out of the ordinary. pic.twitter.com/2FvOqwDA4W
— ChainArgos (@ChainArgos) December 20, 2023
Currently, all wallets are virtually empty.
The Finiko pyramid operated from 2019 to 2021 in Russia, Kazakhstan and several other CIS republics, offering clients to invest in “high-yield investment schemes” in real estate and cryptocurrency.
The total damage from the pyramid’s activities, according to independent estimates, exceeds $4 billion. The number of victims is at least 850,000. A criminal case has been opened against Finiko for fraud on a particularly large scale.
The pyramid’s transactions included, in particular, the US-sanctioned exchange Chatex, which was sanctioned by the United States in November 2021. Among the pyramid’s counterparties were the exchanges Binance, Garantex Europe OU, Bitpanda, Luno and Coinbase, LocalBitcoins, Totalcoin.io and Bitzlato, as well as other platforms with the absence of KYC-processes or minimal AML requirements.
Since December 1, 2023, Tether has begun freezing wallets from the SDN-list OFAC. The firm described it as a landmark initiative to enhance security and regulatory compliance in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Earlier, Tether confirmed its commitment to cooperating with law enforcement and to countering illicit use of the USDT stablecoin.