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Garantex
Garantex is a Russian cryptocurrency exchange co-founded in 2019 by Stanislav Drugalev and Sergey Mendeleev located in the Federation Tower. It is mainly known for exchanging rubles for other currencies via trading them through cryptocurrencies, avoiding sanctions.

U.S. Sanctions
As of April 2022, the company was sanctioned by the US treasury, although the company claimed it had no assets in the United States and it's crypto reserves were held "in neutral jurisdictions." By the time it was sanctioned, Garantex had already moved its IT infrastructure to Russia.

Three weeks after the sanctions, Garantex launched a partnership with an operator called Bithauz in the United Arab Emirates. Bithauz was run by a Dubai-based firm, MKAN Coin, MKAN Coin had been registered in April, just weeks after the Garantex sanctions, by a former Garantex executive, Mohammad Khalifa. Previously a senior official at the Dubai International Financial Centre. MKAN Coin, formerly listed on Garantex’s website as a partner, was part of a group of Emirati firms that Khalifa used to offer relocation services to wealthy Russians (Turkey, Kazakhstan and other countries bordering Russia, Spanish resort town of Marbella, a popular holiday destination). MKAN Coin told the Journal it didn’t operate Bithauz but it shares a physical office.


 * https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/garantex-russian-crypto-hamas-crime-sanctions-a3648357
 * Digital wallets controlled by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which joined Hamas in the attacks, received a portion of $93 million via Garantex
 * US Treasury assessed that wealthy Russian individuals were using Garantex to move money out of the country and cybercriminals to launder their earnings. Rubles to stablecoins to other traditional currencies through partners
 * Garantex migrated its IT infrastructure to Russia from an original undisclosed location and set up partnerships in popular locations for Russian émigrés such as Dubai and Thailand.
 * Garantex, saying the exchange has zero tolerance for money laundering and used what she called state-of-the-art Russian-made compliance software
 * Russian authorities have conducted raids on it and pressured the company it to share the data it collects on users
 * September 2020, Drugalev handed himself in, he agreed to give police information on the criminal groups using Garantex and was released. Drugalev moved to Dubai, found dead. Two months later, Drugalev’s replacement joined other crypto executives at a meeting in Moscow with the Federal Security Service during which police officials said they wanted “the maximum amount of information” on their platforms’ users. Garantex supported national and international initiatives to combat crime. Cooperated with Russian law enforcement “within legal boundaries.”


 * https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-01-12-2023-cpi-report-december-inflation/card/illicit-crypto-volumes-hit-new-high-last-year-on-sanctions-related-surge-0yvGzuLMEGy9PgjZ9mB1
 * https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-darknet-market-tied-to-ransomware-is-shut-down-11649196069
 * Garantex was initially registered in Estonia
 * https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0701
 * https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/founder-and-majority-owner-bitzlato-cryptocurrency-exchange-charged-unlicensed-money
 * https://www.icij.org/investigations/russia-archive/firm-related-to-sanctioned-crypto-exchange-garantex-is-a-partner-of-moscow-gang-leader-and-has-links-to-kremlin-controlled-rosneft/
 * Shareholder replaced in corporate records by another linked to Rosneft, co-owns debt-collection business with a convicted gang leader
 * https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-28/crypto-transfers-to-russian-exchange-worth-20-billion-probed-by-us-uk
 * $20 billion probe aimed at transactions through Tether, though there was "no immediate suggestion of wrongdoing by Tether Holdings"
 * Side note of Tether being the most-used currency for "pig butchering" investment scams and most-used stablecoin for criminal activity in crypto in 2023
 * Stripped of license to operate in Estonia in 2022
 * Allows withdrawals via Sberbank of Russia PJSC, Tinkoff Bank JSC, Alfa-Bank AO cars, all sanctioned by US and some allies

Dapper Labs links

 * https://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2022
 * https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2022/05/19/Technology/dapper-labs-thanks-to-nba-top-shot-takes-best-in-sports-technology-at-sports-business-awards
 * https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-permits-lawsuit-claiming-nba-top-shot-nfts-are-securities-2023-02-22/
 * https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/22/23610592/nba-top-shot-nft-securities-lawsuit-dapper-labs
 * https://theathletic.com/4061485/2023/01/06/nba-top-shot-nfl-all-day/
 * https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/04/11/sec-dapper-labs-investigation-case-closed-september-2023-roham-gharegozlou/
 * https://fortune.com/crypto/2023/02/22/nba-top-shot-nfts-securities-dapper-labs-lawsuit/
 * https://natlawreview.com/article/does-dapper-settlement-offer-rules-road-nft-issuers/