#U.S. Justice Department Accuses Russian National of Money Laundering#

The U.S. Justice Department has charged three Russian nationals with money laundering for allegedly operating sanctioned cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. The three Russians are Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik, who have been arrested, while the third, Anton Vyachlavovovich Tarasov, remains at large. Blender.io was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for its role in helping to obscure the cryptocurrency proceeds of North Korean hacking operations. The Justice Department said the cryptocurrency “tumblers” operated by the defendants were havens for money laundering, including the proceeds of ransomware and telecommunications fraud. They made it easier for state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from crimes that harm public safety and national security. The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixer, which came amid North Korean accusations, and the FBI, Dutch and Finnish police seizure of the website cryptocurrency mixing service — a controversial business that represents both the industry’s vulnerability to exploitation by criminals and its defense of financial privacy — have been a focal point of debate among U.S. policymakers and lawmakers. In the most prominent case, the sanctions against Tornado Cash were overturned in November by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the technology on which such services rely cannot be the subject of sanctions. However, the government is still pursuing criminal charges against the founder of Tornado Cash. Blender.io operated from 2018 until 2022, when it was shut down by authorities, and was quickly replaced by Sinbad.io, which was also similarly sanctioned by the Treasury Department.