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The American authorities run the screws on a vast criminal network accused of the use of stolen cryptocurrencies to finance the Noord -Korea nuclear weapon program.
A group under sanctions related to Noord -Korea is said to have stolen around $ 620 million in a cryptocurrency -hack from 2022, American prosecutors are planning to show in a coming test, which illustrates the range in digital currency. The US Department of Finance recently said that it would put a Cambodian financial conglomerate on the black list for alleged money laundering of stolen digital currency for the shadow group.
The efforts are the last to focus on the activities of the Lazarus group, which the American authorities suspect to pilate billions of dollars for almost two decades to finance the nuclear program of the North Korean regime.
Public prosecutors and lawyers of the defense clash about how much of the evidence in the money laundering case, where a crypto service is called Tornado Cash, can be shown to jury members, according to court applications. Defense lawyers try to block the references to the Lazarus group of the trial and say that it would be unfair for the suspect. Prosecutors claim that the crypto wallet that the stolen funds have entered was linked to the group.
Lazarus Group is geassocieerd met enkele van de meest beruchte digitale overvallen in de recente geschiedenis, waaronder de diefstal van $ 81 miljoen van de rekening van Bangladesh in de Federal Reserve Bank of New York naar de wereldwijde “wannacry” ransomware -aanval en de cyberaanval op Sony Pictures in Retaliation voor de productie van de film voor de productie van de film voor de productie van de film voor de productie of the film for the production of the film for the production of the film The interview.
The US placed the group under Sanctions in 2019.
A enforcement unit from the Ministry of Finance has also recently focused on Lazarus, and noted that it used the Huione Group, a bankcong glomate, based in Cambodia, to launder $ 4 billion in stolen digital funds.
“Huione Group serves as a critical junction for money laundering of cyberverhaas that is carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” “
Said Fincen, adding that it would break Huione’s access to the American financial system.
In 2023, the Ministry of Justice accused Roman stormA co-founder of Tornado Cash, who obscured the history of blockchain transactions, with conscious money laundering of more than $ 1 billion in criminal revenues via his platform.
Storm and other co-founders of Tornado Cash, claimed public prosecutors, believed that the Lazarus group was responsible for hacking the Ronin network that underlies Axie Infinity“ A blockchain-based video game. The co-founders would also think that the funds could be used for the North Korea program for mass destruction weapons, the Doj added.
Lawyers for Storm, who have not been guilty and will be tried this month, said that Lazarus Group’s references must be blocked due to lack of evidence and relevance, according to judicial files.
They said that Storm was not accused of hacking: “Neither is he reportedly tensioned with or have ties with the Lazarus group”, according to a court application.
The Ministry of Justice also accused another co-founder of Tornado Cash, Roman Semenov, who in general remains.
A lawyer who represented Storm refused to comment.
Noord -Korea has become a leading force in international cyber crime, in which American law enforcement treats it as one of the most important global cyber threats alongside Russia, China and Iran. It is assumed that the digital assets regime abused to support its illegal programs for ballistic rockets and weapons of weapons, according to the American treasury.
“Lazarus Group has repeatedly fallen victim to both the users and developers of digital assets technologies for the financing of the malignation activities of the DVK regime,” said the Ministry of Justice in a statement.
Victor Cha, President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Said North Korea’s Estimated Haul of $ 1.34BN in Stolen Cryptocurrency Last Year Procernaed Weaping, Leading proliferation finance ”.