The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a Treasury Department agency in charge of preventing sanctions violations, recently added Bitcoin and an Ethereum address to its blacklist.
The addresses are those of Igor Zimenkov and his son Jonatan Zimenkov, who are part of “a large network of persons and businesses” aiming to sell defensive weapons to governments in foreign nations, according to a news statement released on February 1st.
The two crypto owners are linked to Rosoboroneksport, Russia’s sole official intermediate agency for defense-related and dual-use items, technology, and services.
Russian-Arms Dealer ETH-Wallet Believe To Aid Russia’s War
The actions carried out in accordance with Executive Order (E.O.) 14024, are part of the United States strategy to “methodically and intensively target sanctions evasion efforts around the world, close down key back-filling channels, expose facilitators and enablers”, and by that limiting Russia’s access to the revenue needed to wage its brutal war in Ukraine.
The United States Treasury Department refers to the both members of the Zimenkov family as “Russia- and Cyprus-based arms dealers”. The government also accuses them of supplying the Russian army with “high technology devices,” that were used in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Zimenkov Addresses Received Funding From Wallet Related to Alameda Research
Interestingly, the crypto addresses sanctioned did not have any significant amount of cash in it.
A sanctioned bitcoin address only held 0.01 BTC, whle the Ethereum address which was used to transfer millions of dollars is currently innactive and has 0 Ether in its balance.
A report from the crypto analytics firm Arkhan Intelligence reported that this Ether wallet received funds from a wallet that also had a connection to the FTX sister-company Alameda Research.
However, there are no indications that Alameda had any connection to the arms-dealer’s wallets. The United States Government also did not report of any ongoing investigation on that matter.
