Suex, a Russian based virtual asset broker, has been put on a ban by the Department of US State Treasury. The reason told for imposition of ban was the alleged involvement of Suex in activities leading to allegations of money laundering. Treasury Department suspects Suex in conducting illegal business practices wherein crypto funds, originating from banned markets, ransomware payments and scams, have been processed without any check and balance.
An order of “blacklisting” a crypto trading platform has been passed by the Department of US State Treasury. The firm, which has been blacklisted, is a Russian based crypto entity known as “Suex”. Under the order of blacklisting, the company is now registered in the official list of blacklisted entities called “SDN”. An official warning informing the general public to refrain from doing any business with the blacklisted company has been issued by the Department. Later on a list containing the addresses were published specifically for letting know people that they belong to Suex.
Primarily this crypto trading platform of Suex is registered in the state of Czech Republic. However, the company conducts most of its business from its branches that are located and registered in Russia. There are two main offices of Suex in Russia, one in Moscow while the other is situated in Saint Petersburg. It is also assumed that other than Russia, the firm has branches in states/territories adjacent to Russian Federation. There is also a possibility that it may have established a branch in the Middle Eastern region as well, but this fact is doubtful.
US Authorities, in particular the Department of US Treasury, suspects Suex for being involved in several criminal activities. The apprehension of the Department has been duly endorsed by a crypto intelligence firm called “Chainalysis”. It has been re-affirmed by Chainalysis that Suex facilities services such as allowing conversion of crypto funds into fiat or movable or immovable assets. However, such services are offered exclusively on the basis of physical visitation by the interested person at any branch office of Suex.
Because of this very service of allowing conversion of virtual assets, Suex has become a preferred place for malicious actors. According to US authorities, Suex’s clients includes money launderers, scammers, black markets as well as ransomware attackers. Authorities in the US claim that through Suex these malicious actors have transacted more than US$160 Million to OTC brokers.
The firm was sent live in 2018 and since then has handled Bitcoins worth more than US$ 481 Million. However, apart from Bitcoin, the firm also dealt with prominent virtual currencies like Ethereum. As per investigation report, the firm had converted Bitcoins funds amounting to US$ 13 Million, which were actually proceeds from ransomware. Similarly, US$ 20 Million worth of crypto was converted which funds were originally proceeds of scams. But now the firm has been blacklisted eventually in the US market.
