Russians and crypto mixers not mixing well: another round of charges in the US

The US has announced new charges involving money laundering that include Russian nationals and so-called crypto mixers.

A federal grand jury has indicted Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, 55, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik, 44, and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov, 32, for operating the crypto mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on December 1st, 2024, while Tarasov remains in hiding.

According to US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, these platforms, designed to strengthen the privacy of crypto users by obscuring the source of funds, were allegedly used by criminals worldwide to launder money stolen from ransomware victims, virtual currency thefts, and other crimes.

Blender.io operated for four years, until 2022, while Sinbad.io, launched after Blender.io's closure, was shut down in November 2023 by law enforcement.

Blender.io advertised itself as not requiring users to sign up, register, or "provide any kind of detail except the receiving address," stating that "[a]s there are no personal details asked for, there’s no way your identity is compromised or can be linked back to you because, as far as Blender.io is concerned, they don’t know who you are."

Both mixers have also been sanctioned by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OFAC claims that Blender.io was used by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to launder stolen crypto assets, while Sinbad.io was accused and sanctioned for being used by a DPRK state-sponsored hacking group and cybercriminals to obfuscate transactions linked to criminal activities.

In 2022, the US also sanctioned another popular crypto mixer, Tornado Cash, claiming that it had helped launder more than $7 billion worth of crypto assets. Tornado Cash's operators, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, were charged with money laundering and sanctions violations and are now awaiting sentencing. Meanwhile, last year, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to more than five years in prison for aiding in money laundering.

However, the Tornado Cash case gained support from the crypto industry, which claims that the case threatens privacy-preserving technologies and attacks developers writing code.

Crypto advocates celebrated an important victory in November 2024 when a US federal appeals court overturned the US Treasury Department's sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer. The court ruled that its code is not the "property" of a foreign national or entity and, therefore, cannot be sanctioned. According to the court, OFAC overstepped its authority.