It’s sanctioning virtual currency exchange SUEX for facilitating transactions for ransomware actors.
The White House imposed sanctions Tuesday against SUEX, a virtual currency exchange that enables users to trade cryptocurrency or other digital currencies, for its role in facilitating financial transactions for ransomware actors. Spearheaded by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC), the new commercial and financial penalties against SUEX are intended to punish the platform “for its part in facilitating financial transactions for ransomware actors, involving illicit proceeds from at least eight ransomware variants,” according to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time OFAC has punished a virtual exchange for complicity in criminal ransomware activity. An analysis of known SUEX activity has shown that over 40% of transactions were associated with illicit actors, the Department of Treasury says. “We recognize that the vast majority of activity that’s happening in the virtual currencies is legitimate activity,” Adeyemo told reporters during a briefing. “But we also do know that these criminals are using some of these exchanges and mixers, and peer to peer services to conduct illicit activity that is not in our national interest.” In 2020, ransomware payments reached over $400 million. The FBI has indicated a nearly 21% increase in reported ransomware cases and a 225% increase in associated losses from 2019 to 2020. The actions represent a significant step in the Biden administration’s efforts to starve parts of the crypto ecosystem that have knowingly fostered the business of ransomware in recent months and years. “Treasury will prioritize the identification of nested exchanges transacting high percentages of illicit activity,” Adeyemo said. The targeted sanctions stop far short of handicapping the entire cryptocurrency infrastructure, but serve as a warning for other platforms where ransomware transactions are suspected of taking place, nudging them to shore up compliance programs or avoid illicit transactions altogether.
