US charges Chinese nationals with laundering $100 million from North Korean hack News
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US charges Chinese nationals with laundering $100 million from North Korean hack

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment Monday against two Chinese nationals on charges for laundering over $100 million from a cryptocurrency exchange hack by North Korean hackers in 2018.

The two nationals, Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong, were indicted on counts of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

“These defendants allegedly laundered over a hundred million dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency to obscure transactions for the benefit of actors based in North Korea,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

The hack was part of a larger, $250 million hack led by the defendants’ North Korean co-conspirators. The North Korean co-conspirators also stole $48.5 million from a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange in November 2019. In both the 2018 exchange and 2019 South Korean exchange hacks, the North Korean co-conspirators “allegedly falsified identification documents and stole funds through hundreds of automated transactions, relying on North Korean infrastructure in their heist,” according to the DOJ.

“North Korea continues to attack the growing worldwide ecosystem of virtual currency as a means to bypass the sanctions imposed on it by the United States and the United Nations Security Council,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Don Fort.

The complaint seeks to recover the stolen funds, some of which were already seized by IRS Criminal Investigations, the FBI, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations. The Korean National Police of the Republic of Korea assisted the US agencies.