Founder of Crypto Payment Firm Evita Charged With Moving More Than $530 Million to Help Russian Clients Evade Sanctions
On June 9, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, unsealed a 22-count indictment charging Iurii Gugnin, the founder of the cryptocurrency payment company Evita, with using the company as a front to move more than $530 million in overseas payments through U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, helping Russian clients evade U.S. sanctions and export controls. Gugnin was arrested in New York that day, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl, and was ordered detained pending trial.
Gugnin, also known as Iurii Mashukov and George Goognin, 38, is a New York resident and Russian citizen who served as founder, president, treasurer and compliance officer of Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc. Prosecutors said that from June 2023 through January 2025 he moved about $530 million through the U.S. financial system via Evita, mostly in the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Many of his clients held funds at sanctioned Russian banks, including Sberbank, Sovcombank, VTB and Tinkoff, and he personally held accounts at Alfa-Bank and Sberbank.
The indictment alleged that Gugnin procured export-controlled servers from a U.S. technology company for foreign customers, laundered money for a Moscow supplier to buy components for Russia's state atomic energy company Rosatom, and falsified invoices to strip out Russian customers' names and addresses. He allegedly lied to banks and exchanges that Evita did no business with Russia or sanctioned entities, failed to implement an anti-money laundering program, failed to file suspicious activity reports, and obtained a Florida money transmitter license through false statements. The indictment also listed his internet searches showing he knew his conduct was illegal.
The charges include wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, unlicensed money transmission, failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, failure to report suspicious activity, and money laundering. Bank fraud carries up to 30 years in prison per count; wire fraud, the IEEPA violations and money laundering up to 20 years; the anti-money laundering and reporting counts up to 10 years; and conspiracy to defraud the United States and unlicensed money transmission up to five years. An indictment is merely an allegation, and Gugnin is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr., Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg and FBI New York official Christopher G. Raia were among those who announced the charges. The case was coordinated through the Disruptive Technology Strike Force of the Justice and Commerce Departments, and was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation, among other agencies.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于纽约州国王县布鲁克林的 Theodore Roosevelt 美国法院大楼入口，纽约东区联邦法院所在地。Ajay Suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The entrance of the Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, home of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Photo by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
