THE US TREASURY ADDED BITCOIN WALLETS OF IRANIAN HACKERS TO THE SANCTIONS BLACK LIST

The US Treasury Department officially added bitcoin addresses to its individual sanctions list, for the first time in history.

On Wednesday, the Department of the Treasury’s office of foreign assets control (OFAC) announced that it has added two Iranian residents — Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyana — to Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN), organizations with whom U.S. citizens are prohibited from doing business. For the first time in history, bitcoin addresses belonging to individuals were included in the list.

The organization has previously stated the possibility of adding cryptocurrency addresses to SDN, since, according to the OFAC, digital assets do not differ from Fiat in the context of conducting prohibited financial activities or sponsoring terrorism. Thus, by adding bitcoin addresses to the list, the organization warns American citizens that they are forbidden to send funds to these cryptocurrency wallets.

In his statement, the Deputy Head of the counterterrorism and financial intelligence Department said that bitcoin wallets came to the attention of the OFAC, as Iranian cybercriminals received digital funds to these addresses.

“We are adding cryptocurrency wallets, which are involved in illegal activities in the digital currency space, to the SDN addresses.”

Recall that, last year the Minister of Finance of the USA Steve Munich said that his agency is conducting several investigations of bitcoins’ illegal use. As Munich assured, investigation should confirm the innocence of digital currencies to the “illegal processes”.