The Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint on June 5, alleging that North Korean IT workers laundered more than $7.74 million in cryptocurrency to fund the country’s weapons program and evade U.S. sanctions.
According to court documents, the workers allegedly obtained remote jobs at blockchain and tech companies using fake identities, and funneled the illegally earned cryptocurrency back to North Korea through a network of laundering techniques.
The funds were initially frozen in 2023 as part of a broader federal case targeting individuals and entities tied to North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank.
Officials said the complaint is the latest effort to disrupt what they described as a long-running scheme by Pyongyang to exploit global crypto platforms and employment systems for profit….