OFAC’s New Russia-Related Crypto Sanction: Huriya Private

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions today on Russia-related Huriya Private FZ LLE, a “private equity, immigration, multifamily office and corporate structuring firm” based in the UAE. The company’s CEO, John Hanafin, was also identified, for whom OFAC provided a crypto address.

According to US Department of the Treasury:

“Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Huriya has set to work quickly moving Russian assets into structures that protect them from sanctions. Huriya also helped wealthy citizens of the Russian Federation to obtain non-Russian passports under false names to avoid financial controls and sanctions.

Irish citizen John Desmond Hanafin (Hanafin) is the founder and chief executive officer of Huria. Hanafin facilitated the movement of Russian money to the UAE through Huria. Hanafin, with the help of corrupt government officials, also procured fake passports for Russian clients who wanted to hide their Russian nationality.”

Elliptic’s analysis shows that Hanafin’s address received about $4.95 million in stablecoins.

Screenshot from Elliptic Investigatorshows real-time analysis of the sanctioned crypto address associated with John Hanafin, showing significant inflows and outflows to identified wallets.

OFAC too announced sanctions against DuLac Capital and Anselm Oskar Schmuck:

“Switzerland-based DuLac Capital Ltd (DuLac Capital) is an asset management company and multi-family office with subsidiaries in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. Swiss citizen Anselm Oskar Schmucki (Schmucki) is the head of the Moscow branch of DuLac Capital and the regional head for Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the UAE.

“Schmucki, which is based in the UAE, offers a range of services, including investment management, in Russia, Switzerland, Cyprus and the UAE. Schmucki controls a global network of shell companies and had close financial relationships with a person accused of financial crimes and a company suspected of links to Russian organized crime and money laundering. Schmucki also facilitated the sale of tens of millions of dollars in gold bullion.”

Among the companies owned by Schmuck and now under sanctions is Cryptovenience OÜ – an Estonian cryptocurrency business that offers smart cards to store and transfer cryptoassets. OFAC has not listed any crypto addresses for this entity.

The full OFAC press release can be found here here.

The Elliptic team has conducted research and updated our screening and investigation tools to ensure compliance teams can immediately identify exposure to these sanctioned entities.