#U.S. Justice Department Accuses Russian National of Money Laundering#

The U.S. Justice Department has charged three Russian nationals with money laundering, alleging they operated sanctioned cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Two of the individuals were arrested last month and face money laundering charges. The third suspect remains at large. Blender.io was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for helping North Korean hackers hide proceeds from cybertheft, marking the first time the Treasury had sanctioned a cryptocurrency mixer. The Justice Department said the cryptocurrency mixers operated by the defendants were havens for money laundering, including proceeds from ransomware and telecommunications fraud. They made it easier for state-sponsored hacking groups and other cybercriminals to profit from crimes that harm public safety and national security. The Treasury’s sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixer due to North Korean allegations, the FBI, Dutch and Finnish police seizure of the website cryptocurrency mixing service — a controversial enterprise that represents both the industry’s vulnerability to exploitation by criminals and its defense of financial privacy — have been a point of contention for U.S. policymakers and lawmakers. In the most prominent case, the sanctions against Tornado Cash were overturned in November by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the technology on which such services rely cannot be targeted for sanctions. However, the government is still pursuing criminal charges against the founder of Tornado Cash. Blender.io operated from 2018 until 2022, when it was shut down by authorities, and was quickly replaced by Sinbad.io, which was also similarly sanctioned by the Treasury.