The US Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) added Roman Semenov, one of many co-founders of the Twister Money cryptocurrency “mixer,” to its checklist of Specifically Designated Nationals and Blocked Individuals (SDN) on Aug. 23. One other co-founder, Roman Storm, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Inner Income Service Legal Investigation division in Washington state the identical day.
Semenov and Storm are being charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to function an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise in an indictment unsealed on Aug. 23. The primary two counts every carry a most sentence of 20 years in jail. The cash-transmitting cost is punishable by as much as 5 years’ imprisonment.
Semenov stays at giant. The third Twister Money co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested within the Netherlands on cash laundering costs in August 2022.
Associated: 5 US enforcement companies type new digital foreign money anti-crime activity drive
U.S. Legal professional for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams mentioned in a press release launched by the Justice Division (DOJ):
“As alleged, […] [w]hile publicly claiming to supply a technically subtle privateness service, Storm and Semenov in reality knew that they had been serving to hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes.”
The legislation enforcement actions are a continuation of a U.S. authorities crackdown on Twister Money that started final 12 months. In August 2022, OFAC positioned 44 USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) addresses on the SDN checklist, successfully stopping U.S. residents from utilizing the service.
OFAC’s sanctioning of Twister Money triggered a backlash within the crypto group. Coinbase backed a go well with filed by six people that alleged the Treasury Division exceeded its authority in sanctioning the mixer. Advocacy group Coin Heart filed an analogous go well with. Professional-crypto member of the U.S. Home of Representatives Tom Emmer additionally wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen questioning the transfer.
Each the DOJ and OFAC particularly check with Twister Money’s function in laundering funds of the Lazarus Group, a North Korean-linked hacking group, which can also be on the SDN checklist, however Twister Money has been implicated in a number of different hacks as properly. All informed, the mixer has laundered over $1 billion in ill-gotten positive factors, in line with DOJ allegations.
Journal: Twister Money 2.0: The race to construct protected and authorized coin mixers
