Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 2 → 26. Problems weighed by who is responsible: the subject's own conduct −113, problems around the subject, caused by others −1.5; legitimacy credit long-running +4; no established finding that it defrauded anyone, so it stays out of the red band. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| The subject's own conduct | -113 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -1.5 |
| Long-running | +4 |
| Sum | -45 |
- No established finding that it defrauded anyone, so it stays out of the red band (26 or above).
Score: 26/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
Evita Pay (operating as Evita Investments Inc. and Evita Pay Inc.) was a New York-based cryptocurrency payment company founded by Iurii Gugnin, a Russian national. On June 9, 2025, Gugnin was arrested and charged in a 22-count federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York, alleging he used Evita to funnel approximately $530 million through U.S. banks and cryptocurrency exchanges on behalf of clients at sanctioned Russian financial institutions between June 2023 and January 2025. Gugnin was ordered detained pending trial and faces potential sentences of up to 30 years per bank fraud count.
Connected Entities
4 entities · 60 linked investigations- Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Tether(70%)
- Evita Investments (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Tether(65%)
- Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Cointelegraph(60%)
- Evita Investments (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)(80%)
- Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Evita Investments (Iurii Gugnin)(80%)
- Evita Investments (Iurii Gugnin)→mentioned with→Cointelegraph(60%)
Connected Through
4 shared actors · 183 investigationsDistinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.
- □Tetherorganization
- ♦Cointelegraphtoken
- □Evita Investments (Iurii Gugnin)organization
- □Evita Pay (Iurii Gugnin)organization
Timeline(6 events)
June 2023
Alleged scheme begins: Gugnin allegedly starts using Evita Investments and Evita Pay to route funds from clients at sanctioned Russian banks through U.S. financial institutions via USDT stablecoin (approximate start date per indictment).
DOJ Office of Public AffairsSeptember 2024
Gugnin is profiled by the Wall Street Journal in an article on wealthy renters, identified as paying $19,000 per month for a Manhattan apartment.
Finance Magnates31 January 2025
Alleged scheme ends: the indictment's stated period of criminal activity concludes (approximate end date per indictment).
DOJ Office of Public Affairs9 June 2025
22-count federal indictment against Iurii Gugnin is unsealed in the Eastern District of New York. Gugnin is arrested and arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl; he is ordered detained without bail pending trial.
DOJ EDNY and DOJ Office of Public Affairs9 June 2025
IRS-CI and the FBI New York field office are identified as the lead investigative agencies in the DOJ press release.
IRS-CI10 June 2025
OCCRP, CNBC, Decrypt, CoinTelegraph, Meduza, and other major outlets publish coverage of the charges.
OCCRPDecision Log
- slot 455359950 · hash ErN2j64ST1R7G8kHJ1tzF7hDhCwfNJ4hY7SsGYBcsMT
- slot 427167481 · hash CHmuBV5tj2WWzVj56336mm7PdgRCStRAddRfb7CC32Xi
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (2 decisions). 14 of 14 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 6/17/2026, 11:12:59 PM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:41:09 PM
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