September 22, 2021

The United States government has imposed sanctions on Suex OTC, which restrict Suex’s access to all U.S. property and prohibit Americans from doing business with the company.

Suex OTC is a private company based in the Czech Republic

This became necessary after the Treasury Department accused Suex OTC, a cryptocurrency exchange, of supporting ransomware attacks by facilitating transactions with illicit proceeds for at least 8 different ransomware variants.

According to the Treasury Department, a breakdown of Suex transactions shows that more than 40% of these transactions involve illegal actors, and although some exchanges are exploited by bad actors, the agency has revealed that exchanges such as Suex “facilitate illicit activities for their own illicit gains.”

U.S. Assistant Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a conference call with reporters before the announcement: “Exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers’ ability to extract profits from ransomware attackers. The action is a signal of our intention to expose and disrupt the illicit infrastructure using these attacks.”

For more information, read the original story in Reuters.