ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named two Russians, Artur Sungatov and Ivan Kondratyev, who were indicted for deploying ransomware in a statement, and identified 10 Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses that have been added to the U.S. Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, prohibiting U.S. entities from providing any form of financial services to these two individuals. OFAC stated that the two are members of the LockBit ransomware group, which is one of the world's most prolific ransomware distributors, accused of stealing over $120 million from more than 2,000 victims over the past few years.Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice, Europol, the UK's National Crime Agency, and agencies from several other countries seized LockBit's website and various web pages in an international operation. Law enforcement announced that they would distribute decryption keys to victims, enabling them to regain access to their devices.

ChainCatcher news, Orrick law firm partner Ben Hutten stated that U.S. regulators have been paying attention to cryptocurrencies, and even though miners are not currently the focus, they have reason to remain cautious. If miners provide services to individuals on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list, OFAC may view this as substantial support for sanctioned individuals, which could serve as a basis for imposing sanctions on service providers.CoinShares Bitcoin research director Christopher Bendiksen also agreed with this view, stating that he believes some miners will eventually start reviewing transactions related to addresses on the OFAC list, "this will become a cost of doing business in the West."

ChainCatcher news reports that court documents show that six representatives, including Coinbase, Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch, have submitted a case to the Fifth Circuit Court regarding the Treasury's inclusion of Tornado Cash on the sanctions list, which will be reviewed by the court.According to a previous report from September 2022, six individuals, including two Coinbase employees, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against the Treasury's decision to include Tornado Cash on the sanctions list, with Coinbase providing financial support for the lawsuit.In April 2023, the plaintiffs submitted a motion for summary judgment.In August 2023, The Block reported that in the Coinbase-supported lawsuit regarding the Tornado Cash sanctions, District Court Judge Robert Pitman stated in a document submitted to the U.S. District Court that he ordered the dismissal of part of the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment from Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch. The court found that Tornado Cash is an association in the ordinary sense, and therefore is an entity that can be designated under OFAC regulations.

According to ChainCatcher news, as reported by Wu, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a new OFAC SDN sanctions list on August 23, which includes Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov. The announcement states that he is of Russian nationality, previously residing in Dubai, and lists eight of his Ethereum addresses. The announcement cites regulations: secondary sanctions risk, sections 510.201 and 510.210 of the North Korea Sanctions Regulations, and the prohibition of transactions by persons owned or controlled by U.S. financial institutions.Tornado Cash was blacklisted last year, effectively prohibiting U.S. citizens from using the service. An official statement from U.S. regulators stated that since its launch in 2019, the tool has facilitated the laundering of over $7 billion, including funds from North Korean attackers and other malicious actors. In August 2022, Roman Semenov claimed that his account on the developer platform GitHub was suspended. Russian-born Tornado Cash developer Pertsev was arrested by the Dutch Ministry of Finance and the Information Services Agency in August 2022.