US indicts 4 men in scheme to launder cryptocurrency for North Korea

WASHINGTON – The United States Justice Department said on Monday that it had indicted four men on charges of laundering virtual currency stolen by an infamous North Korean online criminal syndicate, as part of a far-reaching scheme to buy goods with US dollars and evade international sanctions.

North Korea’s government, short on cash, later used the money to buy goods, including tobacco and communications equipment, in 2018. A third indictment describes an unlicensed money-transmitting business that conducted over 1,500 trades for US customers without the necessary licences. The charges stemmed from “innovative attempts” by North Korean operatives to evade sanctions by “targeting virtual currency companies for theft,” Assistant Attorney-General Kenneth Polite, head of the US Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.

Since 2017, North Korea has pilfered an enormous amount of currency through fraud schemes and by hacking into virtual currency accounts. That money is, in turn, used to buy badly needed goods for the government, military and leadership, investigators said.

Source: Digital Coin News (digitalcoinnews.net)

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