The United States has indicted three Russians for managing cryptocurrency mixers Blender.io and Sinbad.io.
Crypto mixers (tumbler services) are services designed to anonymize cryptocurrency transactions. They work on the principle of mixing funds sent by users with other transactions, making it difficult to trace their source and final recipient.
Roman Vitalievich Ostapenko (55) and Alexander Evgenievich Oleinik (44) were arrested on December 1, 2024, while Anton Vyacheslavovich Tarasov (32), is wanted.
If proven guilty, the defendants will face up to 20 years in prison for money laundering and up to 5 years for operating an unregistered money service.
“Blender.io and Sinbad.io were allegedly used by criminals around the world to launder funds stolen from victims of ransomware, steal virtual currency, and other crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan
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