Three Russian nationals tied to operating sanctioned crypto-mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io have been indicted on money laundering charges by a federal grand jury in Georgia, the US Justice Department said in a statement on Friday.
Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik were arrested last month and face money laundering charges. A third person linked to the services’ operations, Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov, is at large, the DOJ said.
Authorities from several jurisdictions had already seized and dismantled the computer equipment behind the services. Blender.io had previously been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for helping to hide the crypto proceeds from cyber thefts carried out by North Korean hackers. The move marked the Treasury Department’s first sanctions against a cryptomixer, which is a service that aims to anonymize transactions and erase the public trail of digital assets.
“According to the indictment, the defendants operated cryptocurrency ‘mixers’ that served as safe havens for the laundering of criminally derived funds, including the proceeds of ransomware and wire fraud,” said Senior Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, DOJ’s Criminal Division Chief. , in a statement. “By allegedly operating these mixers, the defendants facilitated state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from offenses that endangered both public safety and national security.”
Read more: Crypto Mixer sanctioned by US Treasury over North Korea claims as FBI, Dutch and Finnish police seize site
The prosecution of crypto-mingling services – the controversial companies that represent both the sector’s vulnerability to criminal use and its championing of financial privacy – has been a point of contention for US politicians and members of Congress.
In the most famous case, the pursuit of Tornado Cash, the Treasury Department’s sanctions were overturned in November by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the technology that underpins such services cannot be targeted in this way. However, the government is still pursuing criminal cases against Tornado Cash’s founders.
Blender.io operated from 2018 to 2022 before being taken down by authorities, only to be quickly replaced by Sinbad.io, which drew similar sanctions from the Treasury.
