A Secret Plan to Breach the Blockchain: America Seizes Millions of Dollars from Cryptocurrency Funding North Korea's Regime
In a revealing development that highlights the escalating covert cyber warfare, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the commencement of proceedings to seize over $7.74 million in digital assets believed to have been raised illegally for North Korea, through an international network of 'technology agents' who infiltrated global blockchain companies using fake identities.
According to the statement issued on June 5, these funds represent the proceeds of fake employment schemes and digital money laundering, executed by North Korean individuals remotely working in tech companies, who were paid in stablecoins like USDC and Tether to conceal their true locations and funnel the proceeds directly to the regime.
The roots of the case date back to April 2023, when these assets were frozen after Sim Hyun Sub, a representative of North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank in China, was accused of coordinating the transfer of digital profits to Pyongyang with the help of fake tech workers.
Federal court documents show that the involved parties used advanced concealment techniques including transfers across multiple blockchain chains (chain hopping), swapping cryptocurrencies, and creating fake digital identities, alongside purchasing NFTs to mislead regulatory authorities.$BNB
