US Treasury office blackslists Bitcoin wallets tied to Iran’s IRGC

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned ten individuals and two companies these days affiliated with a malware group linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and stopped their Cryptocurrency wallet identifiers.

Based on the division, the people and companies introduced to the country’s blacklist have been involved in coordinated malware infections against various US-based organizations and businesses since 2020.

Ransomware is a cyberattack in which cybercriminals wirelessly lock a network or computer by extracting software weaknesses and then ask for payment to re-enter. Despite the clarity of public blockchains like Bitcoin, such payments are usually made in virtual currency, which may be more challenging to track than other virtual payment options.

Treasury officials claim that the Iranian gathering targeted a children’s clinic, a town in New Jersey, a sparsely populated electric power utility, and various other companies in the United States. The people have been recognized as Afkar System Yazd Company and Najee Technology Hooshmand Fater LLC workers or affiliates.

Because the claimed hackers and their corporate entities have been placed on the OFAC blacklist, American residents and businesses are no longer permitted to communicate with them. This contains the cryptocurrency wallet identifiers that are mentioned alongside the titles of their accusation owners.

More sanctions

In addition to the OFAC punitive measures, the Treasury stated that three of the people, Amir Hossein Nikaeen Ravari, Ahmad Khatibi Aghda, and Mansour Ahmadi, have already been accused by the United States. The United States AOD of New Jersey is investigating the ransomware attack. The province of New Jersey has been giving up to $10M in bonuses for materials related to those people.

The Treasury recently added Tornado Cash, some Ethereum cryptocurrency mixing device designed to disguise the motion of crypto financing, to the trade blacklist in August.

According to the Treasury, Tornado Cash had also mainly been employed to transfer funds, such as stolen cryptocurrency funds. Like some other distributed apps, Tornado Cash operates autonomously through a programmable shared ledger and is not run by individuals or a business.

Consequently, the choice has sparked outrage not only among the cryptocurrency community but also from Tom Emmer. The Treasury made clear its stance on the use of Tornado Cash, noting that folks who received finances through the use of Tornado Cash with no permission won’t be penalized.

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