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.
