November 29, 2023 at 11:54AM
The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned and international authorities have seized Sinbad.io, a crypto mixer allegedly used by North Korean Lazarus hackers for laundering money, including millions from high-profile crypto heists. The operation involved the U.S., Netherlands, and Poland, targeting the service to prevent illegal activities.
Meeting Takeaways:
1. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned the cryptocurrency mixing service Sinbad.io due to its role in laundering money for the North Korean Lazarus hacking group.
2. Cryptocurrency mixing services, like Sinbad, are used to obscure the origin of illicit funds by distributing them across numerous wallet addresses. Sinbad takes a commission and returns the mixed funds to the customer’s new wallet.
3. Sinbad.io is implicated in processing millions in virtual currency from the Lazarus Group, notably from the Horizon Bridge and Axie Infinity heists, contributing to significant financial losses.
4. The use of Sinbad is associated with various illicit activities, including sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse materials, and other illegal transactions on darknet marketplaces.
5. The Lazarus Group is infamous for its sophisticated cyberattacks and theft of vast sums of cryptocurrency, including $620 million from Axie Infinity, $100 million from the Horizon Bridge, significant amounts from the Atomic Wallet, and $37 million from CoinsPaid.
6. The FBI states that North Korea uses the stolen funds to support its national operations, and Sinbad was prominent in laundering money from major hacks like Atomic Wallet, Axie Infinity, and Horizon Bridge heists.
7. An international law enforcement operation involving the U.S., the Netherlands, and Poland has led to the seizure of the Sinbad website domain and the shutdown of both its clearweb and Tor sites.
8. The seizure message on the Sinbad.io website details the legal basis for the action, indicating coordination among various national law enforcement agencies.
9. This is not the first time OFAC has taken action against cryptocurrency-related entities; it previously sanctioned the Lazarus Group in 2019 and Tornado Cash mixer in 2022 for similar laundering issues associated with North Korean hackers.