The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a Russian company, Operation Zero, and the people behind it after accusing them of purchasing stolen cyber tools for millions in cryptocurrency and reselling those technologies, which were created for use by the US government.
The tools bought and sold by the recently sanctioned Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and his business, Operation Zero, were said to have originally been stolen by an Australian citizen, Peter Williams, who once worked at the defense contractor that made the national security-focused software “for the exclusive use of the United States government and select allies.” Williams pleaded guilty last year to selling trade secrets.
“Treasury will continue to work alongside the rest of the Trump Administration to protect sensitive American intellectual property and safeguard 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 American Intellectual Property Protection Act. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions bar Americans from any business dealings with those flagged or 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. The allegations say the tools were offered for sale to those seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in computer software.
While the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleged that cryptocurrency was used in the transactions, it did not include specific addresses to be blacklisted.
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