As part of an international law enforcement investigation, the FBI and the Dutch Financial Intelligence and Investigation Agency seized the websites of a cryptocurrency mixer allegedly used by North Korean hackers and several cybercriminals to launder stolen funds and blackout transactions.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the government department that administers and sanctions foreign individuals and entities, announced that it had sanctioned Sinbad, a Bitcoin mixer that “serves as a base money- flushing tool’ for the Lazarus Group, a prolific hacking group widely believed to be working for the North Korean government.
OFAC said in a statement that crypto mixer Sinbad processed “millions of dollars worth of virtual currency from Lazarus Group heists,” including some of the proceeds from the massive Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity hacks in 2022, which netted $100 million and $625 million, respectively; respectively.
“Interference with agencies that allow criminals like the Lazarus Group to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences,” US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo was quoted as saying in the press release. “The Treasury Department and its US government partners stand ready to deploy all the tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers like Sinbad from facilitating illegal activities. While we encourage responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem, we will not hesitate to take action against illegal actors.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.
Cryptocurrency monitoring firm Elliptic previously stated that the Lazarus Group laundered the cryptocurrencies they stole from Atomic Wallet to Sinbad. Atomic Wallet is a decentralized wallet that said in June that about 50,000 of its customers had had their cryptocurrency stolen in a hack, resulting in a total loss of $35 million.
Tom Robinson, the chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic, told TechCrunch that Sinbad was used to launder funds stolen in the hacks of Stake.com ($41 million), CoinEx ($70 million), FTX ($477 million dollars), of BadgerDAO ($120). millions) and more.
Sinbad websites began displaying an FBI seizure notice on Wednesday.
In February, the founder of Sinbad, who asked to be called Mehdi, he told Wired that, “Sinbad is present on the clearnet because he does nothing wrong.”
According to Bleeping Computersinbad’s dark site also no longer works.
Sinbad is the latest in a growing list of crypto blenders that have been sanctioned by the US government, including Tornado Cash and Blender.io. In its press release, OFAC said Sinbad “indiscriminately facilitates illicit transactions.”
