On September 19, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned MRB Bank, located in the occupied Tskhinvali region, for its involvement in the network of four other entities and one individual that facilitated and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The network helped Russia and North Korea evade sanctions, facilitating the financing of North Korea’s illicit weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs and supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. In a scheme orchestrated by the Central Bank of Russia, MRB Bank acted as an intermediary for a sanctioned Russian bank, TSMRBank, to establish a secret banking relationship with North Korea’s state-run Foreign Trade Bank (FTB).
TSMRBank Vice President Dmitry Nikulin facilitated cash deposits from FTB through TSMRBank to MRB. Nikulin also organized the opening of correspondent accounts for FTB and Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC) at MRB and coordinated with North Korean representatives to ensure the delivery of millions of dollars and rubles in banknotes to FTB and KKBC accounts at MRB. Some of the North Korean accounts at MRB were used to pay for fuel exports from Russia to North Korea.
The U.S. Department of Treasury notes that “with mounting battlefield losses and increasing international isolation, Russia has become more dependent on North Korea for weapons procurement and economic cooperation.”
