Tue 21 September 2021:
The US Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it has imposed sanctions for the first time against SUEX OTC, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange platform, for allegedly facilitating financial transactions for numerous ransomware operators.
“Today’s actions include the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) designation of SUEX OTC, S.R.O. (SUEX), a virtual Currency exchange, for its part in facilitating financial transactions for ransomware actors,” the Treasury Department said in a press release. “This action is the first sanctions designation against a virtual currency exchange and was executed with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to a Reuters report, Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said that “exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers’ ability to extract profits from ransomware attackers,” seemingly targeting cryptocurrency. He added that the sanctions were an attempt to “disrupt the illicit infrastructure using these attacks.”
According to the statement, the Treasury Department claims that SUEX OTC has facilitated illegal transactions related to at least eight ransomware variants, with ransomware operators accounting for more than 40% of all transactions.
According to the Treasury Department’s database, SUEX OTC is registered as a legal entity in Russia and the Czech Republic.
Over the last year, the US has claimed number of ransomware attacks, including those against Colonial Pipeline, the Republican National Committee, and the automation software firm Kaseya.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
