The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned a Russian company, Operation Zero, and the people behind it after accusing them of buying stolen cyber tools for millions in cryptocurrency and reselling those technologies that were created for use by the U.S. government.
The tools bought and sold by the recently sanctioned Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and his company, Operation Zero, were reportedly originally stolen by an Australian citizen, Peter Williams, who once worked at the defense firm that made the national security-focused software “for the exclusive use of the US government and select allies.” Williams pleaded guilty last year to selling trade secrets.
“Treasury will continue to work with the rest of the Trump administration to protect sensitive American intellectual property and protect our national security,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Zelenyuk and the others are said to be the first people to be sanctioned under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act. The sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control block American people from any business dealings with those flagged or with others who do business with them. “Operation Zero has sought to recruit hackers to support its activities and develop business relationships with foreign intelligence agencies through the use of social media,” the Treasury Department said in its statement. Prosecutors say the tools were offered for sale to those seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in computer software.
While the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control claimed that cryptocurrencies were used in the transactions, it did not list specific addresses for blacklisting.
Read more: Criminal Use of Crypto Spikes After Years of Steady Decline, TRM Report Says
