OREANDA-NEWS. On December 12, the US Department of the Treasury has updated the list of companies with which American citizens and legal entities are prohibited from doing business (Specially Designated Nationals List, SDN List). Three Russian companies: Vertical, Yunikom (Khanty-Mansiysk) and Tsentr Avtoobsluzhivaniya (Kurgan) were excluded from it.

All three companies were blacklisted on December 5, when the United States imposed sanctions on a group of Russian hackers Evil Corp., which stole, according to the US Treasury, more than 100 million dollars. The agency’s message then stated that Vertical, Yunikom and Tsentr Avtoobsluzhivaniya belong to Denis Gusev, who was considered by the US Treasury as one of the leaders of Evil Corp.

The owner of Vertical and Yunikom told to journalists of RBC news agency that his name is really Denis Gusev, but he has no relation to hackers and his companies were included to SDN List because the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury confused him with his namesake. According to the businessman, he and Denis Gusev, included in the sanctions list, have a same patronymic, but their birth dates differ. “I have nothing to do with it. Denis Igorevich Gusev and I have a different year of birth. And I have never been to Moldova. I read from foreign media that he has foreign passports – Israeli, Moldavian,” Gusev said to Interfax news agency.

The owner of Tsentr Avtoobsluzhivaniya Alexander Lelekov, who compared OFAC’s decision with a joke, also claimed his non-involvement in cyber technology.