Three alleged operators of popular cryptocurrency mixers have been charged with money laundering offenses.
Russian trio Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov were indicted by a federal grand jury for their involvement in the Blender.io and Sinbad.io services.
The two platforms were sanctioned by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) after it was revealed that both were used by ransomware actors and North Korean hackers to launder stolen crypto funds.
Blender.io ran from 2018 to 2022, offering users a “No Logs Policy” and promising to delete any trace of their transactions. A few months after it shut down, Sinbad.io emerged, but it too was subsequently taken offline on November 27 2023, after law enforcement action.
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Research from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic claimed that Sinbad was likely launched in an attempt to circumvent OFAC sanctions against Blender.
After its launch in October 2022, Sinbad was used to launder funds from the $100m heist of Horizon, and thereafter cleaned tens of millions in stolen crypto-cash for North Korea, according to the firm.
Together with another crypto mixer, Tornado Cash, Blender is thought to have helped North Korean threat actors launder $475m from its attack on Axie Infinity, which will likely have been used to further the country’s weapons programs.
One Defendant Remains at Large
Ostapenko, 55, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oleynik, 44, and Tarasov, 32, are both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on December 1 2024, while Tarasov remains at large.
“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,” said principal deputy assistant attorney general Brent Wible, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
“The indictment and arrests announced today, which follow the earlier takedown of the defendants’ criminal infrastructure, yet again demonstrate the value of our international partnerships in countering the global threat from cybercrime.”
In November 2024, a dual Russian-Swedish national was sentenced to 12 years and six months behind bars after being accused of running the Bitcoin Fog crypto mixer from 2011 to 2021.