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 basın bülteni.

Hazine Bakanlığı'na göre Sinbad'ın, Kuzey Kore bağlantılı hack grubu Lazarus Group'a atfedilen yüksek profilli siber saldırılarda çalınan milyonlarca dolar değerindeki kripto para birimini işlediği iddia ediliyor. Lazarus Grubu daha önce 2019 yılında siber saldırıları nedeniyle yaptırıma maruz kalmıştı ve bu saldırıların son on yılda çalınan dijital varlıklara 2 milyar dolardan fazla zarar verdiği bildiriliyordu.

Specifically, Sinbad has been linked to laundering funds from the recent $100 million hack of cryptocurrency wallet provider Atomik Cüzdan and last year’s $620 million Axie Infinity hilesi ve 100 milyon dolar Horizon Bridge exploit.

Hazine Müsteşar Yardımcısı Wally Adeyemo, "Lazarus Grubu gibi suç aktörlerinin çalıntı varlıkları aklamasına olanak tanıyan hizmetlerin birleştirilmesi ciddi sonuçlarla karşı karşıya kalacaktır" dedi ve şunu ekledi: "Hazine Bakanlığı ve ABD hükümeti ortakları, tüm araçları kendi ellerinde kullanmaya hazırdır." Sinbad gibi sanal para karıştırıcıların yasa dışı faaliyetleri kolaylaştırmasını önlemek için elden çıkarma."

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

Devam eden baskı

The Treasury has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency mixers since its first major action yaptırım 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 yüklü 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 işten 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 yeni sınıf of “primary money laundering concern.