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Justice Department Will Prosecute Banks, Crypto Exchanges That Help Russians Hide Assets: Report
A new task force has been created to freeze or take the assets of Russians that have been sanctioned following the invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Justice Department will investigate and prosecute people and financial institutions, including crypto exchanges, that aid Russians in hiding their assets from sanctions, according to a Bloomberg report, citing a senior department official.
- A new task force composed of prosecutors, agents, analysts and translators from across the Justice Department has been created to pursue these investigations, according to the official.
- The type of assets that might be frozen or seized include real estate, stock holdings, bank accounts, yachts, airplanes, jewelry and artwork, the official said.
- The move comes amid growing concern by U.S. lawmakers and others that cryptocurrency can be used by individuals and entities in Russia to avoid economic sanctions.
- On Friday, the White House and G7 group of nations said they would issue new guidance regarding the use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Read more: Crypto Still Isn't Helping Russian Oligarchs Evade Sanctions
Nelson Wang
Nelson edits features and opinion stories and was previously CoinDesk’s U.S. News Editor for the East Coast. He has also been an editor at Unchained and DL News, and prior to working at CoinDesk, he was the technology stocks editor and consumer stocks editor at TheStreet. He has also held editing positions at Yahoo.com and Condé Nast Portfolio’s website, and was the content director for aMedia, an Asian American media company. Nelson grew up on Long Island, New York and went to Harvard College, earning a degree in Social Studies. He holds BTC, ETH and SOL above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.
