Money flows continue to flow between Russia and the countries, even despite the sanctions and the loss of access by Russian banks to the SWIFT international payment network. All restrictions circumvented with the help of crypto-stablecoins. Money transfers in cash are carried out anonymously and are not registered anywhere.
This conclusion was reached in the Russian branch of Transparency International, writes CoinDesk. Investigators found at least eight over-the-counter brokers in Moscow alone. At the same time, the most active of the identified wallets received and sent 42-47 thousand dollars per month.
“For example, you can buy Tether (USDT) stablecoin for cash in Moscow and then sell it for cash in London. No registration, no identity verification, no licenses“, – the material says. In its conclusions, Transparency said that it focused on the UK, since this country “has long been a favorite place for hiding Russian money abroad.”
stablecoin – the general name of the cryptocurrencies, the exchange rate of which is trying to stabilize. For example, their value may be pegged to the value of conventional currencies or commodities.
How the scheme works
Moscow brokers agree to make transactions on amounts from 10 thousand dollars. They prefer to work with Tether (USDT), which is the largest stablecoin by market capitalization (pegged to the US dollar).
Therefore, the first step of a potential client is to buy USDT. Next, an OTC (over-the-counter market) is searched, where it will be offered to purchase USDT for pounds sterling. Transparency found eight brokers, and the investigators decided to pretend to be clients.
During the experiment, it turned out that brokers offer approximately the same conditions: commission from 1% to 3% and same-day cash delivery to an agreed location in London.
Clients need to send photos of any banknote with a serial number and show it to the courier when meeting with the counterparty. “Sometimes couriers also asked for a description of the client’s clothing, but no ID required“, the article says.
As GLOBAL HAPPENINGS reported, another scheme to circumvent sanctions using Tether was previously exposed. It turned out that the Huobi and KuCoin exchanges allow cryptocurrency trading using debit cards issued by sanctioned Russian banks. As a result, Russians freely withdraw their funds to foreign bank accounts.
Source: Obozrevatel
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