A network accused of assisting North Korea in raising hundreds of millions of dollars through cryptocurrencies to fund its nuclear development has been subject to penalties by the US.
Eight people and organisations associated with the plan have been placed on a blacklist, according to the US Treasury Department. According to officials, the network facilitated the transfer of around $800 million to North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Investigators said that the scam mainly depended on North Korean tech professionals who obtained remote jobs at businesses all over the world, including in the US, by forging documents and assuming false identities.
After they were employed, a significant amount of their pay was purportedly returned to the North Korean government. Additionally, employees occasionally installed dangerous software on company systems, enabling them to demand ransom payments or steal data.
In order to move the money, cryptocurrency was crucial. Twenty-one cryptocurrency wallet addresses connected to the network on multiple blockchain platforms were frozen by authorities.
Nguyen Quang Viet, the head of a Vietnam-based business suspected of assisting North Korea in converting money into cryptocurrency, was one of those sanctioned. According to investigators, he assisted in processing roughly $2.5 million related to the scam.
The measure, according to US officials, is part of a larger attempt to prevent North Korea from utilising digital assets to get around international sanctions and finance the development of weapons.
According to investigations, thousands of North Korean IT professionals may be working abroad, earning money for the state through cryptocurrency payments and remote labour opportunities.
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