According to Bloomberg, the USA and the UK are investigating the $20 billion cryptocurrency transfer sent to the Russian stock exchange.
The United States and Britain are examining more than $20 billion in cryptocurrency transfers through a Russia-based virtual exchange as part of Russia's efforts to evade sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.
Knowledgeable people said that the $20 billion transfer examined was made through the Moscow-based cryptocurrency exchange Garantex and using Tether (USDT).
It was stated that the transfers in question took place since Garantex was sanctioned by the USA and the UK on suspicion of facilitating financial crimes and illegal transactions in Russia.
Sources said the $20 billion transaction was one of the largest sanctions violations since the beginning of sanctions against Russia.
At this point, Tether, which supported the investigation, said that it had frozen all assets of the organizations whose addresses were on the US sanctions list related to the US-UK investigation.
Tether said in a statement to Bloomberg:
“With Tether, every action can be online, every transaction can be tracked, every asset can be seized, and every criminal can be caught.
“We are working with law enforcement to do exactly that in relation to the US-UK investigation.”
*This is not investment advice.