Operators of Cryptocurrency Mixers Charged with Money Laundering
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia returned an indictment on Jan. 7 charging three Russian nationals for their involvement in operating the cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik were arrested on Dec. 1, 2024, roughly a year after Sinbad.io’s online infrastructure was seized as part of a coordinated law enforcement action among the Netherlands’ Financial Intelligence and Investigative Service, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI. The third defendant, Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov, remains at large.
“According to the indictment, the defendants operated cryptocurrency ‘mixers’ that served as safe havens for laundering criminally derived funds, including the proceeds of ransomware and wire fraud,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. “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. 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.”
“Blender.io and Sinbad.io were allegedly used by criminals across the world to launder funds stolen from victims of ransomware, virtual currency thefts, and other crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia. “This indictment demonstrates our continued commitment to dismantling infrastructure used by cybercriminals to steal from Americans and hide their ill-gotten gains.”
“Last year, with the assistance of our international partners, we successfully dismantled Sinbad.io,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Sean Burke of the FBI Atlanta Field Office. “However, we did not rest with this initial success. We maintained our focus on identifying the individuals responsible for its development and ensuring their accountability. These indictments serve as a testament to the power of international cooperation.”
According to court documents and publicly available information, Blender.io and Sinbad.io were cryptocurrency mixers that allowed their users, for a fee, to send cryptocurrency to designated recipients in a manner designed to hide the source of the cryptocurrency. Blender.io and Sinbad.io were available for use by the public via the internet and used by criminals looking to distance themselves from the fact that their funds came from cryptocurrency thefts, ransomware attacks, and other crimes.
Blender.io operated from approximately 2018 to 2022. The service was advertised on a popular internet forum as having a “No Logs Policy” and deleting any traces of user transactions. Additionally, in the advertisement, Blender was described as not requiring users to sign up, register, or “provide any kind of detail except the receiving address!” The advertisement asserted that, “[a]s there are no personal details asked for, there’s no way your identity is compromised, or can be linked back to, because as far as blender.io goes they don’t know who you are.” After Blender.io shut down, Sinbad.io began operating a few months later. Like Blender.io, Sinbad.io provided users with Bitcoin concealment services. And, on November 27, 2023, Sinbad.io was taken down through law enforcement action.
Both Blender.io and Sinbad.io have been sanctioned by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). On May 6, 2022, OFAC sanctioned Blender.io, citing its use by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to launder stolen virtual currency. OFAC’s public sanctions announcement also explained that Blender.io laundered funds for multiple ransomware groups. On Nov. 29, 2023, OFAC sanctioned Sinbad.io, publicly citing its use by a DPRK state-sponsored hacking group and cybercriminals to obfuscate transactions linked to other criminal offenses.
Ostapenko, 55, is 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. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the money laundering conspiracy count and five years in prison for each unlicensed money transmitting business count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service and Fiscal Information and Investigative Service made significant contributions to the case, including to the disruption of the Sinbad mixer, and provided other valuable assistance. Significant support was also provided by the Australian Federal Police and Attorney-General’s Department, and Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Ethan Cantor of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, who is a member of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Samir Kaushal for the Northern District of Georgia are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maxwell Coll for the Central District of California provided significant assistance.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
Source: Justice.gov
