🔥Hot off the press!🔥 Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly using cryptocurrency transactions to dodge international sanctions. 🕵️‍♂️ This comes after the U.S. reinstated gold and oil sanctions due to Maduro's failure to ensure fair elections. 🗳️

Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis Inc., suggests that sanctioned regimes like Maduro’s often explore multiple avenues to evade such restrictions. 🌐

A report from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, co-authored by Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo López and Chainalysis’s director of Intel Solutions, Kristofer Doucette, highlights loopholes in the latest sanctions. 😮 They claim Maduro is leveraging cryptocurrency projects to bypass these international barriers. 🚧

López and Doucette are calling for stricter sanctions from the U.S. and European Union, and urge other nations to investigate the Venezuelan government’s use of cryptocurrencies in sanction evasion. 🌍

Chainalysis revealed that SUNACRIP, Venezuela’s National Superintendency of Crypto Assets and Related Activities, was actively transferring large volumes of tokens across various accounts within different cryptocurrency platforms. 💼 Over $70 million in stablecoins had been processed through addresses likely managed by SUNACRIP or affiliates. 💰

In 2018, the Venezuelan government introduced the Petro, a cryptocurrency backed by the nation’s oil and mineral reserves, to combat hyperinflation and avoid U.S. sanctions. However, the token saw limited practical adoption and was suspended in January amid a corruption investigation. 🛑

Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story! 📰🚀