U.S. Treasury Sanctions Sinbad Mixer, Citing Money Laundering By North Korea’s Lazarus Group

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The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned the cryptocurrency mixing service Sinbad.io (Sinbad) for its role in enabling money laundering by North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups, according to a Nov. 29 pressmeddelande.

Enligt finansdepartementet ska Sinbad ha behandlat kryptovalutor till ett värde av miljontals dollar som stulits i högprofilerade cyberattacker som tillskrivs den Nordkorea-kopplade hackergruppen Lazarus Group. Lazarus Group sanktionerades tidigare 2019 för sina cyberattacker, som enligt uppgift har gett över 2 miljarder dollar i stulna digitala tillgångar under det senaste decenniet.

Specifically, Sinbad has been linked to laundering funds from the recent $100 million hack of cryptocurrency wallet provider Atomic Wallet and last year’s $620 million Axie Infinity hack och 100 miljoner dollar Horizon Bridge exploit.

"Att blanda tjänster som gör det möjligt för kriminella aktörer, såsom Lazarus Group, att tvätta stulna tillgångar kommer att få allvarliga konsekvenser", säger biträdande finansminister Wally Adeyemo och tillade att "Finansdepartementet och dess amerikanska regeringspartner är redo att använda alla verktyg vid deras bortskaffande för att förhindra virtuella valutamixare, som Sinbad, från att underlätta olaglig verksamhet.”

The Treasury Department’s sanctioning of Sinbad comes after previous actions taken this year against the cryptocurrency mixers Blender.io and TornadoCash for enabling Lazarus Group money laundering. Some industry experts believe Sinbad to be a successor to Blender.io, but this is not proven.

Pågående tillslag

The Treasury has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency mixers since its first major action sanktionering Tornado Cash in August 2022 over money laundering concerns related to North Korea. Tornado Cash, which had laundered over $7 billion since 2019, was sanctioned for processing funds stolen by the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.

The developers of Tornado Cash have faced legal repercussions as well. Co-founders Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were laddad in August 2023 with conspiracy to commit money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter. Storm was arrested, while Semenov remains at large.

Crypto advocacy group Coin Center filed a lawsuit against the Treasury, claiming the Tornado Cash sanctions violated privacy rights and represented government overreach. However, a federal judge avfärdas the case in November, ruling that there is no constitutionally protected right to use a particular financial tool for donations under the First Amendment.

Additionally, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo gave an ominous speech in October warning digital asset companies that “if they do not act to prevent illicit financial flows, the United States and our partners will.” This indicates the Treasury’s intent to continue targeting services enabling sanctions evasion and money laundering. The Treasury recently designated crypto mixer transactions as a ny klass of “primary money laundering concern.