Twister Money founders charged with cash laundering

• DOJ has arrested Storm and is looking out for Semenov.
• Twister Money was utilized in a number of crypto heists final 12 months.
• OFAC had sanctioned Twister Money in August of 2022.

Co-founders of Twister Money – a completely decentralised crypto mixer based mostly out of Russia – have been charged with cash laundering, as per an indictment unsealed right this moment.

Twister Money laundered cash for the Lazarus Group

Roman Semenov and Roman Storm allegedly laundered over $1.0 billion in complete, of which, tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} they did for a sanctioned North Korean hacking unit – the Lazarus Group.

The U.S. Division of Justice arrested Storm on Wednesday and is looking out for Semenov. In line with James Smith – an Assistant Director of the FBI:

We’re treating this like some other fugitive now. We’re working with legislation enforcement, inside and outside of our company, making an attempt to find and arrest this particular person.

Alexey Pertsev – the third co-founder of Twister Money was not included within the aforementioned joint motion. He does face trial within the Netherlands, although.

Twister Money was utilized in a number of crypto heists final 12 months

Word that OFAC – the Workplace of International Belongings Management had sanctioned Twister Money final 12 months in August.

On Wednesday, the monetary intelligence and enforcement company additionally sanctioned Semenov in addition to the eight Ethereum addresses allegedly beneath his management. Damian Williams – the U.S. Legal professional for the Southern District of New York mentioned right this moment:

Whereas publicly claiming to supply a technically refined privateness service, Storm and Semenov knew they have been serving to hackers and fraudster conceal the fruits of their crimes.

In line with Elliptic – a blockchain analytics firm, the $100 million {that a} U.S. startup Concord misplaced to theft in June have been laundered through Twister Money.