Co-founder of Sanctioned Crypto Exchange Suex Denies Illegal Activity

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Vasilii Zhabykin, co-founder of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Suex, has confirmed to The New York Times his connection with the company, whose crypto addresses were included in the US sanctions list.

According to him, the company was created to develop software for the financial industry.

Zhabykin denies any illegal activities of Suex and believes the US Treasury mistakenly targeted the company.

“I don’t understand how I am involved in this,” he said.

According to Zhabykin, Suex, registered in the Czech Republic, was a failed project and has conducted only half a dozen transactions since 2019. He added he only had three employees.

Zhabykin’s LinkedIn profile indicates he is currently the head of neobank NUUM from the mobile operator MTS.

The rest of the company’s investors Ildar Zakirov and Maxim Subbotin publicly associate themselves with Suex.

The legal entity of the exchanger is SUEX OTC s.r.o. – registered in the Czech Republic. The largest shareholder of Suex is Russian Yegor Petukhovsky. He is also the director of listing in the popular Telegram bot for exchanging cryptocurrencies Chatex.

Suex was originally owned by the Estonian company Izibits OÜ, which still holds a local virtual asset service provider license.

Izibits OÜ is listed as the corporate owner on the Russian-language Suex website. It is also the owner and operator of the Chatex Telegram bot for exchanging cryptocurrencies.