Three Russian nationals linked to the operations of sanctioned crypto-blending services Blender.io and Sinbad.io have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Georgia for money laundering, the US Department of Justice 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 in 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 aiding in the concealment of crypto-crypto cyber thefts carried out by North Korean hackers. This move marked that of the Treasury first sanctions against a crypto mixerwhich is a service that aims to anonymize transactions and remove the public trail of digital assets.
“According to the indictment, the defendants operated cryptocurrency ‘mixers’ that served as safe havens for the laundering of criminal derivative funds, including the proceeds of ransomware and wire fraud,” said Senior Assistant Prosecutor Gen. Brent S. Wible, the head of the DOJ’s criminal division. , in a statement. “By operating these mixers, the defendants made it easier for state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from crimes that endangered both public safety and national security.”
The prosecution of crypto-mingling services – controversial businesses that represent both the sector’s vulnerability to criminal use and its defense of financial privacy – has been a point of contention for US politicians and members of the Congress.
In the most famous case, the pursuit of Tornado Cash, the Treasury the sanctions were lifted in November by a federal appeals court, declaring that the technology that supports such services cannot be targeted in this way. However, the government is still pursuing criminal prosecution of the founders of Tornado Cash.
Blender.io operated from 2018 to 2022 before it was destroyed by the authorities, to be quickly replaced by Sinbad.iowhich drew similar sanctions from the Treasury Department.
