DOWNTOWN — THE FOUNDER OF A CRYPTOCURRENCY PAYMENT COMPANY who was featured in the Wall Street Journal last year was arrested and charged on Monday, June 9, with evading sanctions and export controls, defrauding financial institutions, and violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Arrested Monday morning, 38-year-old Iurii Gugnin, who is known by two other aliases, was charged in federal court in Brooklyn with 22 counts of wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering compliance program, failing to file suspicious activity reports, money laundering, and related conspiracy charges. United States Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl presided at Gugnin’s arraignment.
A New York resident and citizen of Russia, Gugnin allegedly used his cryptocurrency company “Evita” to funnel more than $500 million of overseas payments through U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, while hiding the source and purpose of the transactions. The defendant was ordered detained pending trial.
The defendant was the subject of a Sept. 14, 2024 Wall Street Journal article headlined, “These Millionaires Can Afford Their Dream Home. They’re Renting Instead.”
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