TechFlow news, according to The Block, a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia has charged three Russian citizens in connection with operating two cryptocurrency mixers.
As announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, defendants Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik, and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov are accused of running two mixing services named Blender.io and Sinbad.io, and are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
In May 2022, U.S. authorities discovered that North Korean hackers used Blender to launder $20.5 million gained from the Axie Infinity hack, which had stolen around $600 million in assets. Subsequently, sanctions were imposed on Blender. In 2023, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic indicated that Sinbad was likely a rebranded version of Blender, operated by the same group.
Blender maintained a "no-logs policy" and deleted user transaction details. The company operated from 2018 until 2022, and its successor, Sinbad, emerged several months after Blender shut down. On November 27, 2023, law enforcement took action to shut down Sinbad.
The indictment charges Ostapenko with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oleynik and Tarasov each face one count related to the same unlawful conduct.
If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison for money laundering charges and up to five years for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on December 1, 2024. Tarasov remains at large.
