Evita Pay founder charged by U.S. over $530M crypto laundering scheme
Yuri Gugnin of Evita Pay accused of aiding Russian firms with crypto
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged the founder of the New York-based company Evita Pay, Yuri Gugnin, with helping Russian companies evade sanctions and laundering approximately $530 million.
According to a DOJ press release, 38-year-old Yuri Gugnin, also known as Yuri Mashukov and George Gugnin, founder of cryptocurrency payment companies Evita Investments and Evita Pay, was arrested and indicted on 22 criminal counts.
He faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program, failing to file suspicious activity reports, money laundering, and related conspiracies.
A $530 million crypto laundering pipeline
The DOJ alleges that between June 2023 and January 2025, Gugnin used Evita to move approximately $530 million through the U.S. financial system, most of which came in USDT (Tether).
“Gugnin came to the United States and set up a money laundering operation disguised as a cryptocurrency startup, which he then used to evade sanctions, bypass export controls, and defraud U.S. financial institutions,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Among Evita Pay’s clients were sanctioned Russian banks including Sberbank, Sovcombank, VTB Bank, and Tinkoff Bank. Gugnin also facilitated payments for foreign clients purchasing sensitive electronics and laundered money for a supplier to Rosatom.
He faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison: 30 years for bank fraud and an additional 20 years for related charges.
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