The Blockchain Integrity Act, a piece of legislation that seeks to put a 2-year moratorium on using cryptocurrency mixers, was introduced by U.S. Congressman Sean Casten on March 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Co-sponsored by Reps. Bill Foster, Brad Sherman, and Emanuel Cleaver, the bill proposes to conduct a study on the issue […]
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US Authorities Charge Founders of Bitcoin Mixer Samourai Wallet for Laundering Over $100 Million
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted the founders of Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez, and William Lonergan Hill, on charges of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and laundering over 0 million through illicit transactions. DOJ Indicts Samourai Wallet Founders for Allegedly Operating 0 Million Crypto Laundering Ring According to the indictment unsealed by the Southern […]
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Crypto Markets Surge Wednesday, ADA, DOGE Up Over 10%; Bitcointalk Forum to Censor Mixer Discussions — Daily Price Update
#Crypto Markets Surge Wednesday, #ADA, #DOGE Up Over 10%, #BTC at K; Bitcoin Talk Forum to Censor #Mixer Discussions — Daily #Price Update pic.twitter.com/X9gvCvmO67
— Bitcoin.com News (@BTCTN) December 6, 2023
ADA and DOGE are top gainers on Wednesday, Dec. 6, surging over 10% in the last 24 hours as BTC holds above the K level. Top crypto assets by market capitalization are in the green. In case you missed it, the historically significant Bitcointalk forum will begin to censor certain crypto mixer-related posts starting next year.
What are your thoughts on today’s prices and news? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
Crypto Mixer Sinbad Sanctioned by OFAC Over Alleged Ties to North Korean Hackers
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on yet another cryptocurrency mixing platform, labeling Sinbad.io as a “key money-laundering tool” used by the North Korean Lazarus Group crime syndicate. Sinbad.io, in addition to handling transactions originating from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), has also been linked to processing transactions associated with drug trafficking and sales on darknet marketplaces.
OFAC Sanctions Sinbad.io; Agency Claims Mixer Helped Obscure Funds Stolen From Harmony Bridge, Axie, and Atomic Wallet
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and OFAC have turned their attention towards digital currency mixing protocols. While Tornado Cash and Blender.io were previously targeted by both agencies, the latest subject of scrutiny is the mixer known as Sinbad.io. This service operates as a bitcoin (BTC) mixing platform, and according to OFAC, its primary function is to obscure transaction details, effectively concealing the flow of funds on the blockchain.
OFAC’s investigation has revealed that this mixer has been utilized by the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus Group. Furthermore, it has been implicated in laundering funds obtained from the Harmony Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity hacks. OFAC has now identified it as the “preferred mixing service” for the Lazarus Group, following the takedown of Blender.io. “Sinbad was used to launder a significant portion of the 0 million worth of virtual currency stolen on June 3, 2023, from customers of Atomic Wallet,” OFAC detailed.
“Mixing services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences,” said Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the Treasury. “The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners stand ready to deploy all tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illicit activities.”
This development comes in the wake of FinCEN’s recent update in late October, where it introduced new regulations requiring financial institutions to report transactions involving international cryptocurrency mixing services. At the time, Andrea Gacki, the director of FinCEN, and Adeyemo expressed their determination to combat illicit activities linked to digital currency mixing services.
Even before the proposed rules, the Treasury’s OFAC had been actively taking enforcement actions against mixers such as Blender and Tornado Cash. Simultaneously, OFAC had identified and flagged numerous sanctioned cryptocurrency addresses across various networks. The Treasury also warns that U.S. persons who “engage in certain transactions with the entity designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions.”
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Founders of Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash Accused of Laundering $1 Billion
The founders of the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash were charged Thursday with allegedly helping to launder more than billion in digital currency, including funds taken by North Korean hackers.
Department of Justice: ‘You Can’t Hide From Us Behind a Keyboard — Whether You’re a Hacker or Facilitator’
Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were indicted federally on charges of conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to violate sanctions laws, and operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Storm was arrested in Washington, and Semenov remains at large.
Prosecutors allege that Storm and Semenov intentionally designed Tornado Cash to let cyber criminals anonymize transfers of funds on the blockchain. The system was used to launder more than billion in digital currency, violating U.S. sanctions, the indictment says.
Earlier this spring, Tornado Cash is believed to have aided in laundering part of the 0 million stolen by hackers sponsored by North Korea in a March attack on the Ronin Network, an Ethereum sidechain. Although the company had already put sanctions screening in place, Storm and Semenov reportedly used deceptive compliance practices to keep processing illicit transactions, prosecutors said.
“As alleged, Tornado Cash was an infamous cryptocurrency mixer that laundered more than billion in criminal proceeds and violated U.S. sanctions,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement. “Roman Storm and Roman Semenov allegedly operated Tornado Cash and knowingly facilitated this money laundering.”
These charges come amid a national cryptocurrency crackdown by the Department of Justice aimed at those facilitating cybercrime and evading sanctions. This action follows last year’s imprisonment of Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev by Dutch officials.
What do you think about the charges against the Tornado Cash founders? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
International Operation Takes Down Crypto Mixer Chipmixer — Creator Could Face 40 Years in Prison
An international operation has taken down Chipmixer, a cryptocurrency mixing service that allegedly laundered more than billion worth of cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The operation involved national authorities in the U.S., Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland — with Europol’s support.
International Operation Takes Down Chipmixer
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday “a coordinated international takedown of Chipmixer,” which it described as “a darknet cryptocurrency ‘mixing’ service responsible for laundering more than billion worth of cryptocurrency.” Europol, which provided support for the operation to take down the mixing service, independently announced:
National authorities took down the infrastructure of the platform for its alleged involvement in money laundering activities and seized four servers, about 1909.4 bitcoins in 55 transactions (approx. EUR 44.2 million) and 7 TB of data.
U.S. federal law enforcement seized two domains that directed users to the Chipmixer service and one Github account while the German Federal Criminal Police (the Bundeskriminalamt) seized the Chipmixer back-end servers and more than million in cryptocurrency, the DOJ detailed.
Chipmixer allowed its users to make bitcoin (BTC) deposits which it “then mixed with other Chipmixer users’ bitcoin, commingling the funds in a way that made it difficult for law enforcement or regulators to trace the transactions,” the Justice Department explained.
“It primarily operated as a Tor hidden service to conceal the location of its servers and prevent seizure by law enforcement,” the DOJ noted, adding that while it has many U.S. users, the service did not register with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and did not collect identifying information about its customers.
The Department of Justice added that beginning in and around August 2017, Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, “created and operated the online infrastructure used by Chipmixer and promoted Chipmixer’s services online,” elaborating:
Nguyễn is charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, money laundering and identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Man Behind Helix, A Bitcoin Mixer, Pleads Guilty To Laundering Over $300M
Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers and here’s proof. 38-years-old Larry Dean Harmon admitted to being the operator of Helix, a Bitcoin Mixer service that operated on the Darknet. According to the US Department of Justice, “Harmon advertised Helix to customers on the Darknet to conceal transactions from law enforcement.” What was this man thinking?
Related Reading | DIY Bitcoin ATM Money Launderer Pleads Guilty
The press release continues:
Harmon admitted that Helix partnered with several Darknet markets, including AlphaBay, Evolution, Cloud 9 and others, to provide bitcoin money laundering services for market customers. In total, Helix moved over 350,000 bitcoin – valued at over 0 million at the time of the transactions – on behalf of customers, with the largest volume coming from Darknet markets. Harmon further admitted that he conspired with Darknet vendors and marketplace administrators to launder such bitcoins generated through illegal drug trafficking offenses on those Darknet marketplaces.
The blockchain sees it all and registers every transaction forever. A mixer, also known as a tumbler, is a service that seeks to anonymize transactions. They pool together funds from several parties, mix them up, and serve supposedly clean coins to everyone involved. At the very least, the coins can’t be traced to a specific address. For that, they charge a fee.
BTC price chart for 08/19/2021 on Currency.com | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Even Helix Didn’t Know How Much It Was Laundering. And Bitcoin Is Money
Betraying everything that’s sacred, Larry Dean Harmon’s defense was that he wasn’t guilty because Bitcoin is not money. The law went on the record and confirmed what Bitcoiners have been saying for years, the Washington Post reports:
A line of reasoning rejected by Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell.“ ‘Money,’ ” she wrote, “commonly means a medium of exchange, method of payment, or store of value. Bitcoin is these things.”
That’s on the record. The law knows that Bitcoin is money.
In any case, one thing about mixers is that there are no humans involved in the process. The system does it all. In Helix’s case, apparently, no one even knew how much money they were laundering. Bitcoin.com quotes Harmon’s defense attorney Charles Flood:
“One interesting thing about this case is there was a double-blind system Harmon had set up with Helix,” Flood said in the federal courtroom on Wednesday. “While he completely acknowledges that he violated the law and was in fact laundering money and knew it was drug proceeds … he does not know the exact amount laundered,” Flood added.
What Will The Law Do With Larry Dean Harmon?
For the punishment, we quote once again the original press release:
As part of his plea, Harmon also agreed to the forfeiture of more than 4,400 bitcoin, valued at more than 0 million at today’s prices, and other seized properties that were involved in the money laundering conspiracy. Harmon will be sentenced at a date to be determined and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of 0,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, a term of supervised release of not more than three years, and mandatory restitution.
Ouch.
Related Reading | Top Bitcoin Tumblers Google Result Links To Sites Stealing
This all leads to our original statement, Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers. Or for criminals in general. To drive the point home, the Wall Street Journal quotes Ari Redbord. He’s “a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former senior adviser at Treasury,” and says:
The guilty plea shows U.S. law enforcement is pursuing cryptocurrency mixers with connections to the Darknet and illicit activities, while the transparency of blockchain enables them to trace the funds.
“The nature of cryptocurrency is to allow law enforcement to have unique visibility on financial flow where they never had before.”
And that’s another thing Bitcoiners have been saying all along.
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Vitalik Proposes Mixer to Anonymize One-Off Ethereum Transactions
Founder of ethereum Vitalik Buterin proposed Wednesday a simple design to enhance privacy features on the ethereum blockchain.
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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Proposes Creating On-Chain Ether Mixer
n An on-chain smart contract-based ether mixer has been proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterinn
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EU Authorities Shut Down Bitcoin Transaction Mixer
A bitcoin transaction mixer has been seized and shut down by authorities in the European Union.
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