PANews reported on January 11 that according to The Block, a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia charged three Russian citizens with crimes related to operating two cryptocurrency mixers. According to an announcement released by the U.S. Department of Justice, the defendants Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov were suspected of operating two currency mixing companies called Blender.io and Sinbad.io. They were accused of conspiracy to launder money and operating an unlicensed remittance business.
In May 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Blender after it was discovered that North Korean hackers used Blender to launder $20.5 million from the Axie Infinity hack, which was worth about $600 million. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic noted in 2023 that Sinbad was likely a rebranded version of Blender, operated by the same organization. Blender adhered to a "no logs policy" and deleted user transaction details. The company operated from 2018 to 2022, and its successor Sinbad came out a few months after Blender shut down. On November 27, 2023, law enforcement took action to shut down Sinbad. If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for money laundering and up to five years in prison for operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested on December 1, 2024. Tarasov remains at large.
