A Northern District of Georgia federal grand jury charged three Russian nationals for alleged crimes connected to operating two crypto mixers.
The defendants, Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov, allegedly operated two mixers called Blender.io and Sinbad.io, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Crypto mixers, services used to obfuscate cryptocurrency transactions, are a common target for law enforcement due to their alleged use by criminals. For instance, in 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Ethereum-based mixer Tornado Cash, asserting it helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto from bad actors, including the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group.
The United States sanctioned Blender in May 2022, after finding that North Korean hackers used the mixer to launder $20.5 million from the roughly $600 million Axie Infinity hack. Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic noted in 2023 that Sinbad appeared to be a rebranded version of the mixer as it was nearly identical and likely operated by the same group, The Block previously reported.
“By allegedly operating these mixers, the defendants made it easier for state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from offenses that jeopardized both public safety and national security." Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible said in a Jan. 10 statement. He added that mixers serve as "safe havens" for laundering funds derived from criminal means like ransomware and fraud.
Blender maintained a "no logs policy" and deleted user transaction details. It operated from 2018 to 2022 with successor mixer Sinbad emerging a few months after Blender's closure. A law enforcement action shut Sinbad down on Nov. 27, 2023.
The indictment charged Ostapenko with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts related to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oleynik and Tarasov recieved one count each for the same purported illicit actions.
If convicted, the defendants could receive up to 20 years in prison for the money laundering count and five years for each charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on Dec. 1, 2024. Tarasov remains at large.
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