U.S. Treasury adds cryptocurrency addresses to sanctions list for the first time

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that it has added digital currency addresses to the sanctions list, administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), for the first time.

CoinDesk reported that OFAC first hinted at its plans to add crypto addresses to sanctions list in March, when it updated its FAQ on sanctions compliance.

The move comes as OFAC added two Iranian individuals – Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan – to its Special Designated Nationals (SDNs) list. SDNs includes those individuals and companies that are owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries, as well as those individuals, groups, and entities that are not country-specific.

In its official release, the Treasury said that the Iranian nationals helped exchange bitcoin ransom payments into Iranian rial on behalf of Iranian malicious cyber actors involved with the “SamSam” ransomware scheme that targeted over 200 known victims. It said:

“To help convert the digital currency ransom payments into rial, Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyan used the following two digital currency addresses: 149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V.

“Since 2013, Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyanhave used these two digital currency addresses to process over 7,000 transactions, to interact with over 40 exchangers—including some US-based exchangers—and to send approximately 6,000 bitcoin worth millions of USD, some of which involved bitcoin derived from SamSam ransomware.”

This marks the first time that OFAC is publicly attributing digital currency addresses to designated individuals. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said that they are publishing cryptocurrency addresses to identify illicit actors operating in the crypto space.

“Treasury will aggressively pursue Iran and other rogue regimes attempting to exploit digital currencies and weaknesses in cyber and AML/CFT safeguards to further their nefarious objectives,” Mandelker said.