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Russian OTC crypto swap services are faking AML policies: research

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Russian OTC crypto swap services are faking AML policies: research

Analysts say suspicious coin swap services are trying to maintain โ€œan aura of legitimacyโ€ by requiring clients to agree to fake AML policies.

Russian coin swap services are posing โ€œsignificantโ€ sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) risks as they do not rely on real AML policies, although they are trying to convince their clients otherwise, a recent research paper says.

In a blog report published on Monday, Oct. 2, Ellipticโ€™s senior crypto threat analyst, Arda Akartuna, said that many Russian OTC services are actually copy-and-paste a standard template of AML policies instead of developing their own.

Russian OTC crypto swap services are faking AML policies: research - 1
Screenshots of identical AML policies on Russian OTC coin swap services | Source: Elliptic

Analysts at Elliptic discovered at least eight Russian coin swap services that have โ€œalmost word-for-wordโ€ AML policies.

โ€œSince none of these services require any KYC information to use, the inclusion of a โ€œpolicyโ€ on their website is a mere token attempt to maintain an aura of legitimacy.โ€

Arda Akartuna

Although Elliptic did not reveal the names of these OTC websites, the firm said many of them are offering money-laundering services on Russian cybercrime forums. Akartuna highlighted that these web services also pose high sanctions risk given that they work with many of Russiaโ€™s banks, which have been placed under sanctions.

In mid-September, analysts at Chainalysis warned that North Korean hacker groups have started โ€œincreasing their use of Russia-based exchangesโ€ to launder crypto stolen from centralized exchanges or decentralized finance protocols.

The New York-based firm added that almost $22 million in crypto stolen from Harmony Protocol โ€” a blockchain protocol exploited for roughly $100 million in crypto in June 2022 โ€” was transferred to a Russia-based exchange โ€œknown for processing illicit transactions.โ€ Although Chainalysis did not name the exchange, it said it has evidence that North Korea has been using Russian services to launder crypto for two years now.