9

June

2025

U.S. v. Iurii Gugnin

On June 9, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a 22-count indictment against crypto executive Iurii Gugnin, charging him with laundering over $500 million through cryptocurrency exchanges and U.S. banks. Prosecutors allege that Gugnin primarily acted on behalf of sanctioned Russian financial institutions, using his company, Evita, to facilitate transactions for various sanctioned entities worldwide. The DOJ also charged Gugnin with wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter business. Although Evita held a money transmitter license in Florida, the DOJ asserts that Gugnin secured it through fraudulent representations. If convicted, Gugnin faces a potential life sentence. Prosecutors claim Gugnin used Evita to facilitate purchases for foreign clients, including U.S. electronics and components (including those subject to export controls) for Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear technology company. Gugnin allegedly knew authorities were investigating him; the DOJ states he searched the web for “how to know if there is an investigation against you” and “evita investments inc. criminal records search.”

Read the DOJ's Press Release

Status: DOJ prosecutors unsealed the 22-count indictment against Iurii Gugnin on June 9, 2025, and Gugnin was immediately arrested and now awaits trial. Updated 06/11/2025.

 

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Tom Momberg

+17186645458 tom.momberg@dlxlaw.com

Tom advises clients in an array of matters related to blockchain technology, decentralized finance, banking and payments systems, financial products, and financial technology applications. He joined DLx Law as an attorney after working as in-house counsel for a payments and banking software service provider, advising on various legal and regulatory matters, operations, risk, customer due diligence, and corporate best practices.

Tom received his J.D. from George Mason University Law School in Virginia and his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Tom is a former journalist, and, while in law school, he interned for DLx Law and served as a law clerk for several federal institutions in Washington, D.C., including the CFTC, FCC, and House Judiciary Committee. Tom is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of Oregon.

Angela Angelovska-Wilson

+12023651448 angela@dlxlaw.com

Angela is an early distributed ledger technology adopter and a leading authority in the evolving global legal and regulatory landscape surrounding distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. Prior to co-founding DLx Law, Angela served as the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer of Digital Asset and was part of the founding team.

Prior to joining Digital Asset, Angela was a partner at Reed Smith where she regularly advised clients on the implementation of new technologies to finance and the complex regulatory schemes involved in the development, creation, marketing, sale and servicing of various financial services and products. Before Reed Smith, Angela spent most of her career in various roles at Latham & Watkins, where she was recognized by The Legal 500 US among the top finance attorneys in the U.S.

Angela has a deep understanding of the Fin-Tech industry and in particular the distributed ledger industry, having been involved in a number of startups in various roles, as an employee, entrepreneur and advisor. In addition to DLx Law, Angela is also co-founder of Sila Inc., an innovative technology company.