Evita Crypto Pyramid and Sanctions Evasion: How Yuri Gugnin, a Russian "Financier" Arrested in the US, Turned His American Crypto Platform into a Channel for the FSB and GRU

22:26, 18 мая 2026 г.

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The U.S. continues to unravel the case of Russian Evita crypto platform founder Yuri Gugnin, who was detained last summer.

Gugnin (also known as Yuri Mashukov and George Gugnin) has pleaded guilty to money laundering through his crypto companies Evita Investments and Evita Pay, circumventing U.S. sanctions, operating as an unlicensed payment processor, fraud, and other crimes. As a result, he began cooperating with authorities, and within a month and a half, his business partner "Sergey BTR" was arrested in Cyprus. He will likely soon appear before a U.S. court as well. This is certainly not the last arrest in the "Evita scheme": Gugnin had dozens, if not hundreds, of partners in Russia and abroad, including representatives of the GRU and FSB, an advisor to Chemezov, etc.

Yuri Gugnin is a graduate of Bauman Moscow State Technical University. In the 2000s, he headed web development at ADV, then was a managing partner at the "RIK Business School" and the consulting company "Team-A". In Russia, he had several companies, particularly firms under the "Karma" brand, where his business partner was Muscovite Sergey Bochkov. It is also known that another long-time business partner of Gugnin was Artyom Laptev, a former employee of Troika Dialog. The Karma platform, which they launched together in Russia, issued P2P loans and even had a license from the Central Bank. However, market participants directly called it a pyramid scheme and predicted trouble for investors. The project quietly languished for several years until it was transferred to another owner—in 2024, it was relaunched under the name Investin.vc (LLC "Invest In"). Nevertheless, Gugnin retained the Estonian legal entity of "Karma" – KARMA PEOPLE OÜ.

Gugnin permanently moved to the U.S. in 2022. Before that, he announced on social media that he was recruiting talented programmers for his new project and said he had found an investor: "We raised a round from a pleasant VC fund that has a family-friendly atmosphere of mutual support. It’s more of a venture builder/studio, not just money." According to U.S. records, Gugnin is the sole founder of Evita Investments and Evita Pay; however, the president of the latter is a certain Theodore Darenkov — apparently Muscovite Fyodor Darenkov, a Russian-American who moved to the U.S. as a schoolchild.

Within a couple of years, Gugnin turned the American crypto company into a secret financial conduit, moving over $530 million through the U.S. financial system (and organizing $2 billion in total transactions), helping sanctioned Russian banks process payments. His business spanned China, South Korea, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UAE, and other countries. Gugnin received money in USDT, then withdrew and exchanged it for fiat dollars, deposited the funds into his firm’s accounts at a New York bank, and then paid for goods and services needed by Russian clients. Initially, he used the Russian crypto exchange Garantex, but after it was sanctioned, Gugnin had to find a replacement.

U.S. investigators were very grateful to the meticulous Russian, who carefully preserved his contacts in his iCloud account. There, they found data on GRU and FSB officers (including a money laundering scheme proposed by an FSB officer involving China), as well as information about aides to a State Duma deputy, an advisor to Sergey Chemezov (Rostec), and a representative of the Iranian government. Additionally, Gugnin recorded financial income and expenses in a separate document. For example, it contained the address and email of a wealthy Muscovite for whom Gugnin purchased artwork at a U.S. auction for $43,500. For another Russian, registered in Stavropol Krai, he transferred €150,000 to France for yacht maintenance.

Purchases included Western technologies whose import into Russia is prohibited, as well as luxury items: optics, electronics, smartwatches, auctioned paintings, dental equipment and implants, and a server for a Russian AI developer. It is known that some of the technology went to engineering divisions of Rosatom.

Furthermore, Gugnin managed to open a company in the UK six months before his arrest. Initially called EVITA INVESTMENTS INC LTD, it was renamed ONE EVE INC LTD in March 2025. For obvious reasons, Gugnin was unable to submit the necessary documents to British officials this year, so his company now faces a fine and the threat of compulsory liquidation.

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The crypto platform BlockFills, with which Yuri Gugnin’s American companies worked, has also come under scrutiny. The owner of this platform, Delaware-based Reliz Technology Group Holdings Inc., is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, so Gugnin likely will not be able to recover the funds stuck on BlockFills. However, the platform’s management will have to talk to U.S. law enforcement. The prospect of such a conversation also hangs over other Gugnin counterparts, such as the Dubai travel agency TRVL, which organizes entertainment cruises for elite representatives, and France’s Ponant Explorations (owned by François Pinault, the owner of the Gucci and Saint Laurent brands).

Both were implicated in last year’s scandal involving the cancellation of a North Pole tour featuring the band "Leningrad" for 150 very wealthy Russians (prices ranged from $70,000 to $200,000 per spot). Among the passengers were top managers from Yandex and Russian oil companies, restaurateurs, and a reality TV host with 20 million subscribers.

The founders of TRVL are Russians Boris and Evgeny Pustovoytov, who also own the Dubai car tuning firm DEIZ. It turned out that their Russian legal entity, LLC "Vot Eto Da" (brand NEVEREND), transferred money through Gugnin’s firm to Ponant for the charter of the icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot. Characteristically, the Frenchman had no issues with the Russians. The Frenchman canceled the deal due to Gugnin’s arrest but did not return $5.8 million of the total $8.5 million, so the Pustovoytovs are now trying to recover the money through the courts and are demanding $8.1 million in damages.

Gugnin had dozens, if not hundreds, of counterparts, not only in Russia. By agreeing to cooperate with the investigation, he automatically expressed his willingness to name them. Any travel outside of Russia and friendly jurisdictions could be the last for these people — Gugnin himself, for example, faced up to 30 years in prison. By pleading guilty and cooperating, he could reduce his sentence to 10 years.

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