The cryptocurrency world was shaken today as the U.S. Department of Justice announced serious charges against Iurii Gugnin, the founder of the cryptocurrency payment company Evita. According to the Justice Department, Gugnin faces a 22-count indictment including wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Gugnin, who has lived in New York and hailed from Russia, was allegedly at the center of a scheme to launder in excess of $500 million through the U.S. financial system.
The indictment paints a picture of deception, where Gugnin’s companies, Evita Investments, Inc. and Evita Pay, Inc., were used to hide the movement of funds and facilitate transactions with sanctioned Russian banks. According to the charges, these activities took place between June 2023 and January 2025, during which time Gugnin is said to have received significant amounts of cryptocurrency, most notably Tether or "USDT", and converted them into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies. Furthermore, "As alleged, Gugnin came to the United States and set up a money laundering operation under the guise of a cryptocurrency start-up, which he then used to evade sanctions and export controls and defraud U.S. financial institutions," United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., stated, according to the Justice Department.
The case is a marker of how cryptocurrency, often seen as a democratizing financial tool, can also be weaponized to undermine national security. For Gugnin, the allegations include aiding Russian banks under sanctions and enabling Russian end-users to acquire sensitive U.S. technology. In doing so, it’s claimed that he engaged in falsifying documents to obscure Russian contacts and misrepresenting the nature of his business to banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. United States Attorney Nocella, Jr., added that today’s arrest "demonstrates that this Office will vigorously prosecute those who abuse the U.S. financial system in furtherance of criminal activity, particularly when it undermines national security," as per the Justice Department.
Gugnin is also accused of failing to meet legal anti-money laundering requirements and neglecting to file suspicious activity reports as mandated by the Bank Secrecy Act. Despite representations that Evita followed stringent anti-money laundering and know-your-customer protocols, the indictment suggests Gugnin bypassed those measures, and instead made materially false statements to obtain a state license from Florida. This license was then used to convince a cryptocurrency exchange to process transactions. Searches conducted by Gugnin like "how to know if there is an investigation against you" and "money laundering penalties US" were cited as evidence of his awareness of the illicit nature of his actions, as per the indictment by the Justice Department.
If convicted of the litany of charges, Gugnin could be facing substantial time – up to 30 years' imprisonment on the bank fraud counts alone. The operations were uncovered thanks to the coordination of the Justice and Commerce Departments’ Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency group focused on targeting illicit actors and protecting critical technology from falling into the hands of authoritarian regimes. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Skurnik is leading the prosecution, signaling the seriousness with which the federal government views such infractions.
