The Hermit Kingdom’s illicit funding was tracked down thanks to a timely tip from U.S. law enforcement.
Approximately $4.4 million worth of bitcoin that belonged to fronts for North Korean organizations operating both domestically and internationally were seized, according to a Binance announcement made on May 25.
Due to sanctions against the rogue nation, its agents have frequently used illegal ways of raising funds, such as crypto theft.
Blocking Illegal Research Funding
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, the funds that were seized today were intended to be transferred to both the North Korean Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, which hires the notorious North Korean hackers, and the Pyongyang University of Automation, which is in charge of educating them.
The 110th Research Center, the department in charge of managing the Lazarus Group and other organizations, is where the majority of cybercriminals trained at the Pyongyang University of Automation work.
North Korean IT specialists, who often reside in Russia and China, look for jobs in companies around the world and pay their salaries to the North Korean government in order to fund these organizations. The U.S. Government and Binance worked together to stop the most recent fundraising round, though.
We are proud to have assisted US law enforcement in seizing $4.4M and freezing accounts linked to North Korean organized crime.
Kudos to our law enforcement partners and the Binance Investigations team for their unwavering commitment to combating crime worldwide.
— Binance (@binance) May 24, 2023
The U.S. Treasury’s Brian Nelson expressed gratitude to their “partners in the private sector” for the assistance provided.
The DPRK’s enormous illegal cyber and IT worker operations, which support the regime’s illegitimate WMD and ballistic missile programs, are once again brought to light by today’s action. The United States and our allies are still committed to blocking the DPRK’s unlawful money-laundering schemes and efforts to defraud banks, virtual currency exchanges, companies, and private individuals worldwide.
Commitment To A Safer World
Binance has previously come under fire because of what critics believe is a lack of action to stop extreme organizations and cybercriminals from collecting financing from supporters around the world.
However, in response to the accusations, the company said that its workforce makes every attempt to put a stop to these practices.
Indeed, cybersecurity is a numbers game; the fact that a small number of bad actors are stopped says nothing about the large number of them. This is made worse by the fact that companies don’t openly disclose which bad actors they’ve stopped and how they achieved it because doing so would help others to prevent them from being identified.