Georgia federal prosecutors announced money laundering and unlicensed money transmission charges on Friday against three Russian nationals who allegedly ran crypto mixing services previously sanctioned due to their use by North Korean hackers and other cybercriminals.

A grand jury indictment, issued on January 7, charged Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko, Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik, and Anton Vyachlavovich Tarasov with conspiracy to launder money and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business through their alleged involvement with the crypto mixers Blender.io and Sinbad.io. While Ostapenko and Oleynik were arrested last month, Tarasov remains at large.

U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan explained in a public statement that Blender.io and Sinbad.io were allegedly used by criminals worldwide to launder funds stolen through ransomware, virtual currency thefts, and other crimes.

Crypto mixing services like Blender and Sinbad work by breaking down and combining crypto transactions, "mixing" them to obscure the trail of funds. Though these services can have lawful uses for privacy, Blender and Sinbad allegedly became hotbeds for laundering criminal proceeds from ransomware, wire fraud, and other illicit activities. Brent S. Wible, head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, stated that by operating these mixers, the defendants made it easier for cybercriminals, including state-sponsored hacking groups, to profit from illegal activities that endanger public safety and national security.

The indictment reveals that Ostapenko, Oleynik, and Tarasov operated and promoted Blender and Sinbad between 2018 and 2022. Blender's online advertisements claimed a "no logs policy," meaning they deleted transaction traces and did not require personal details for transfers. Prosecutors allege that the trio knew criminal funds were funneled through Blender and Sinbad, and also failed to register Blender as a money transmitting business. Ostapenko faces an additional charge for not registering Sinbad and its operations in 2023.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added Blender to its sanctions list after it was found to have laundered over $20 million for a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group involved in an exploit of a popular online game. Sinbad.io was also sanctioned in 2023 due to its involvement with North Korean hackers and other criminal activities. The service was later seized in a coordinated law enforcement operation involving the FBI and law enforcement from the Netherlands and Finland.

FBI Atlanta acting special agent in charge Sean Burke praised the international cooperation in dismantling Sinbad and reiterated the commitment to identifying those responsible for operating the service.

While the defendants could not be reached for comment, similar charges have been brought against operators of other crypto mixers in recent years. In 2023, Roman Storm and his co-founder Roman Semenov, operators of Tornado Cash, were accused of enabling the laundering of over $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds linked to North Korean hackers. Storm continues to fight the charges, arguing that he did not control the service enough to be held responsible for its actions. Last year, Roman Sterlingov, the operator of Bitcoin Fog, was sentenced to 12½ years for money laundering after his conviction in Washington D.C.

The government is represented by Samir Kaushal of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia and Ethan Cantor of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

The case is U.S. v. Ostapenko et al., case number 1:25-cr-00001, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.