Alexander Browder

It's unprecedented.

They've never sanctioned a high schooler before.

And so it's clear that my work exposing their currency laundering schemes has touched a nerve.

It's a funny story.

I'm still in high school.

I was sitting at the back of my economics class.

I opened up my laptop and I saw a Reuters headline stating that I was sanctioned.

It's unprecedented.

They've never sanctioned a high schooler before.

And so it's clear that my work exposing their currency laundering schemes has touched enough.

Yeah.

Over the past year and a half, I created the largest open source database of cryptocurrency money laundering.

And what I discovered is that state sanctioned actors like Russia, Iran and North Korea are heavily utilizing cryptocurrency to launder their funds.

And specifically, a recent development with Russia's money laundering efforts is that they created Russian backed stable coins.

So a stable coin is a type of cryptocurrency which is backed to some real value like the dollar or gold.

And in this case, it's backed by the ruble.

It was set up in January 2025 and it's been sanctioned here in the UK, in the EU and the US.

But it still continues to function.

What I discovered is that many illicit cryptocurrency exchanges, which allow the stablecoin to be converted into cash, registered in Kyrgyzstan.

And even more shockingly, it's been reported that the mastermind behind this scheme gifted the Kyrgyz president a luxury jet.