Three Russians accused of laundering money obtained from cybercrime

cyber chronicle, 14.01.2025, 10:30 AM

Three Russian nationals have been indicted in the US for operating cryptocurrency mixers Blender.io and Sinbad.io, which are used to launder the proceeds of cybercrime. The indictment, which was filed on January 7, includes the names of Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Aleksandr Evgenievich Olejnik, who were arrested in December 2024. The third defendant, Anton Vyahlavovich Tarasov, is still at large.

In November 2023, Sinbad.io was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department and seized the domain for providing money laundering services to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus obtained by stealing data in numerous cyberattacks. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also sanctioned Blender.io for helping the same group launder much of the $620 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the largest known cryptocurrency theft ever following the July 2022 Axie Infinity hack.

In the physical world, criminals can use shell companies or complex transactions to make it difficult to trace the origin of money. Cryptocurrency mixers do something similar in the digital world. They take cryptocurrencies from multiple users, mix them all, and then send to recipients. This process makes it very difficult to trace the origin of the money and connect the source of the funds with the final destination.

According to the indictment, Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Aleksandar Yevgenievich Olejnik and Anton Vyahlavovich Tarasov managed Blender.io from 2018 to 2022. The service promised complete anonymity, claiming that there are no records and that all user transaction data is deleted. When Blender.io shut down, Sinbad.io quickly took its place, offering similar services.

Ostapenko and Olejnik were arrested on December 1, 2024. Tarasov’s authorities are still searching. All three are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. If found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in prison.

Photo: Draw | Unsplash