New US sanctions target crypto addresses of Russian hackers accused of election interference

As new U.S. election nears, the Treasury adds new names and crypto addresses to its specially designated nationals list

Sept. 10 updates to the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions include Russian nationals who allegedly worked to interfere in U.S. elections. The updates specifically target a laundry list of crypto wallet addresses associated with these accused hackers. 

The new specially designated nationals include St. Petersburg residents Anton Nikolaeyvich Andreyev and Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits and addresses associated with these two including Bitcoin, Litecoin, ZCash, Dash and Ether. 

This is not the first time that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control has targeted crypto addresses. In March, OFAC added two Chinese nationals who aided North Korea’s hacking program in laundering its ill-gotten gains. 

This is also not the first time that U.S. authorities have said that Russian intelligence used crypto to fund interference in the 2016 presidential election. These are, however, the first OFAC sanctions to name wallet addresses for such a wide range of currencies involved in Russian election interference.

The new measures come as the U.S. presidential election is only 2 months away.