A U.S. grand jury indicts three Russians for operating crypto mixers Blender.io and Sinbad.io, used for laundering stolen funds.
A federal grand jury in the United States has indicted three Russian nationals for their involvement in operating cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. The criminals are alleged to have used these services to launder stolen cryptocurrency funds.
The three men charged were Roman Ostapenko, 55, Alexander Oleynik, 44, and Anton Tarasov, 32. The pair are accused of operating Blender.io and Sinbad.io, services in which users could hide the origin of money they spent. When cybercriminals engaged in something that was illegal, they used these services to hide where cryptocurrency came from, such as ransomware attacks and other criminal activity resulting in cryptocurrencies being stolen.
Blender.io started in 2018 to end in 2022. The platform promoted itself as an anonymous cryptocurrency service that required no registration and no personal information. Because of this, criminals that wanted to hide their illegal activities used it. Once Blender.io was taken out, the same service started to work under the Sinbad.io brand.
Feds Arrest Two in Crypto Laundering Operation, One Remains at Large
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said the mixers made it simple for hackers, including those state sponsored from North Korea, to generate income from cybercrimes. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned both services for money laundering funds for ransomware groups and other criminals.
Roman Ostapenko is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and running an unlicensed money transmitting business. Anton Tarasov and Alexander Oleynik are each charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. They were operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oleynik and Ostapenko were arrested on December 1, 2024, but Tarasov is still on the loose.
The U.S. government’s efforts to crack down on cybercriminals’ infrastructure also include this case. The DOJ thanked international cooperation, specifically backing from law enforcement agencies in the Netherlands, Australia, Finland, and other countries. The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team has assisted the FBI in investigating the matter.
Lastly, the indictment is merely an accusation, and the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
