The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added a number of cryptocurrency addresses to the sanctions list, linked to individuals and entities believed to have aided Russian intelligence services in meddling in the U.S. elections and disseminating disinformation.
As the Treasury asserts, the Pakistan-based company Second Eye Solution (SES), also known as Forwarderz, specialises in creating and selling fake personal data.
According to U.S. authorities, its services were used by the Internet Research Agency. It is also described as the “troll factory” and linked to businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. The latter has long been on the U.S. sanctions list.
The Treasury says SES helped the Agency bypass sanctions by using fake personal data needed for a number of verifications. The Agency presumably used them as verification documents for social-media accounts.
In addition to the owners and staff of the Pakistan-based company, U.S. authorities added to the list a number of cryptocurrency addresses used by SES.
According to the Treasury, from 2013 to March 2021 SES received more than $2.5 million in digital currencies via these addresses.
Several Pakistani front companies used to launder SES’s proceeds were also added to the sanctions list.
Additionally, cryptocurrency addresses associated with the Association for Free Research and International Cooperation, which is also linked to Prigozhin, and the information agency SouthFront were included. The latter is suspected of ties to the FSB.
“Information agencies controlled by Russian security services focus on controversial issues in the United States, smear American political candidates and spread false and misleading information,” the statement said.
The U.S. Treasury has extensive experience in tracing illicit cryptocurrency transactions, freezing accounts and confiscating crypto assets, he says.
The U.S. Treasury first included Bitcoin addresses in the sanctions list in 2018. In 2020 OFAC added to such a list several Russians and related cryptocurrency accounts. At that time the Internet Research Agency was also named in the charges.
Last year the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network within the Treasury proposed to verify bitcoin wallet users.
Partner at the Digital Right Center law firm Mikhail Tretiak told ForkLog that the current addition of cryptocurrency addresses to the sanctions list was made “for purely political motives”:
“There is a desire to sanction, but there are no grounds for this. For this, the U.S. Department chose to use a mechanism where it is difficult to verify wallet ownership, and there is no mention of transfer purposes. Very convenient.”
The Treasury published statements amid the new sanctions announced by President Joe Biden against Russia. Among other things, they targeted Russian IT companies.
Among the firms sanctioned was one of the leading cybersecurity companies, Positive Technologies.
In the Treasury, they said Positive Technologies “conducts large-scale conferences that are used as recruitment events for the FSB and GRU”.
Positive Technologies called the accusations baseless:
“We sincerely believe that geopolitics should not be a barrier to technological advancement for society, and we will continue to provide cybersecurity and enhance cyber resilience worldwide,” ForkLog quoted Positive Technologies.
The sanctions largely responded to massive cyberattacks on U.S. government systems through the SolarWinds compromise, attributed to Russian intelligence services.
In a White House statement, the United States officially named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, linked to the hacking group Cozy Bear (also known as APT 29 and The Dukes), as the culprit behind the attack.
Earlier the White House had stated, that the U.S. would prepare a response to these cyberattacks. According to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the response would involve not only sanctions — but “visible and invisible tools.”
American media reported that authorities planned to carry out a series of retaliatory attacks. In this context, some experts noted that it is necessary to set certain boundaries, as the U.S. imposes broad sanctions for cyberattacks while itself conducting similar campaigns.
“If you look closely at the SolarWinds sanctions, it is hard to understand which exact norm for state-sponsored hackers the Biden administration is trying to establish. At least, which rule have the United States not violated in its own hacking operations,” said cybersecurity and national security expert Bobby Chesney.
Read more about the SolarWinds breach in ForkLog.
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