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American, British and European officials have observed a growing nexus between foreign-orchestrated disinformation campaigns and typologies more commonly associated with illicit finance, such as the use of shell companies and nonprofits to mask payments.

On Sept. 4, the Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklisted Margarita Simonyan, the-editor-in chief of RT, and other individuals and entities associated with the Russian state-run news outlet for their “malign influence” operations against the U.S., some of which involved the use of deepfake imagery generated by artificial intelligence.

OFAC’s countermeasures against RT followed the Justice Department’s seizure of two internet domains associated with a Russian-generated social-media bot farm in July.

They also preceded the agency’s separate designation of seven individuals engaged in hack-and-leaks, phishing attacks and attempted manipulation of the 2020 and 2024 U.S. presidential elections on behalf of Iran.

Federal prosecutors worked in tandem with OFAC by unsealing criminal charges against six of the designees, all of whom worked for Emennet Pasargad, an Iranian cybersecurity firm formerly known as Net Peygard Samavat Company, which the agency first blacklisted in 2019.

Prosecutors alleged in the charges that the defendants used virtual private networks and static IP addresses to siphon financial data and other sensitive details from U.S. officials, campaigners and journalists, then shared the information to news outlets and parties adversarial to the West.

Congress joined the fight against disinformation in September, with a resolution calling on the White House to blacklist parties caught creating or amplifying propaganda in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Prior U.S. designations, namely those of Russian companies Social Design Agency, or SDA, and Structura National Technology in March, shed more light on how the perpetrators of disinformation use technology to obscure their operations and finances alike.

An affidavit filed in support of the related seizure of 32 domains further outlines the tactics used by Russia in particular, in alleging that since at least 2022, Sergei Kiriyenko, deputy chief of staff for President Vladimir Putin, has used entities such as SDA and Structura to register internet domains identical to those of The Washington Post, Fox News and other U.S. news outlets.

Notably, Kiriyenko and other suspected members of the “Doppelganger” network used fake social-media profiles, AI-generated content and paid advertisements to distribute U.S.-targeted propaganda, and evaded and violated anti-money laundering requirements and sanctions by paying for the advertisements and domains with cryptocurrency.

U.S. officials praised their British counterparts for imposing sanctions of their own on Structura and other parties accused of creating fake news websites to broadcast disinformation.

On Oct. 6, the EU unveiled a new framework for responding to “so-called hybrid threats” and other forms of Russian government-sponsored destabilization against the bloc with financial and other restrictions.

The new framework followed the EU’s extension of existing destabilization-related sanctions against Russia on July 22, and issuance of guidance on the bloc’s asset freezes and other measures targeting the operations and finances of Russian propaganda outlets.

European lawmakers have meanwhile called for enhanced cybersecurity to counter foreign interference, and also for more transparency in political lobbying.

Contact Leily Faridzadeh at lfaridzadeh@acams.org