The U.S. government has gone to court trying to seize nearly $3 million in cryptocurrency North Korean hackers stole from various online depositories.
The assets were traced despite the hackers’ attempts to “launder” them, according to the Justice Department.
The civil forfeiture complaint addresses two hacks of virtual currency exchanges by North Korean actors.
“These actors stole millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency and ultimately laundered the funds through Chinese over-the-counter cryptocurrency traders,” the DOJ said.
The government has taken both criminal and civil actions against North Koreans involved in the theft of $250 million in cryptocurrency.
The amount of money involved in the more recent case is smaller, but it still “publicly exposes the ongoing connections between North Korea’s cyber-hacking program and a Chinese cryptocurrency money laundering network.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the case “underscores the department’s ongoing commitment to counter the threat presented by North Korean cyber hackers by exposing their criminal networks and tracing and seizing their ill-gotten gains.”
“Today, prosecutors and investigators have once again exemplified our commitment to attribute national security cyber threats, to impose costs on these actors, and bring some measure of relief to victims of malicious cyber activities,” said John C. Demers, an assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“Although North Korea is unlikely to stop trying to pillage the international financial sector to fund a failed economic and political regime, actions like those today send a powerful message to the private sector and foreign governments regarding the benefits of working with us to counter this threat.”
Don Fort, chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, said that despite “the highly sophisticated laundering techniques used, IRS-CI’s Cybercrimes Unit was able to successfully trace stolen funds directly back to North Korean actors.”
“IRS-CI will continue to collaborate with its law enforcement partners to combat foreign and domestic operations that threaten the United States financial system and national security,” he said.
Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie Jr. of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office said the complaint “demonstrates that North Korean actors cannot hide their crimes within the anonymity of the internet.”
“International cryptocurrency laundering schemes undermine the integrity of our financial systems at a global level, and we will use every tool in our arsenal to investigate and disrupt these crimes,” he said.
The case involves the hack of a virtual currency exchange by a North Korean who allegedly stole some $272,000 in cryptocurrencies and tokens.
The funds were laundered through “several intermediary addresses,” the report said.
But law enforcement still was able to track them.
The complaint also addresses the North Korea-associated hackers accessing of a company’s virtual currency wallets, funds held by the company on other platforms and funds held by the company’s partners.
Some $2.5 million was taken and laundered.
