DOJ Wins Court Authorization to Seize $1.2 Billion in Binance Crypto Linked to North Korea: 15 outlets compared - NewsCord
The U.S. Department of Justice obtained court authorization to seize more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance by North Korean military hackers known as TraderTraitor.
The U.S. Department of Justice obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance by North Korean military hackers it is linked to as TraderTraitor. The DOJ said the Binance theft involved more than $6 billion in virtual assets stolen on or about Oct. 29, and it said U.S. government and private sector efforts have frozen more than $2.7 billion of the stolen funds.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said the Criminal Division used its expertise to halt "about half of this historic breach" by freezing assets before they got beyond law enforcement reach. The DOJ said it is still working to recover additional funds as TraderTraitor continues to launder stolen funds through cryptocurrency bridges, mixers and exchanges.
FaceStealer Disruption
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California disrupted cloud-based infrastructure behind a North Korean social engineering scheme the FBI calls "FaceStealer." The FBI said the scheme has resulted in the theft of more than $400 million in the last 18 months, and it described hackers luring targets into fake video meetings on imposter versions of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
exploits our trust in ubiquitous video conference platforms
The FBI said it seized over 900 webcam videos of victims under a federal warrant, and it said the campaign can grow because each compromise yields the next victim's video and contact lists.
North Korean Denials
The DOJ and FBI tied the FaceStealer operation to North Korea-linked hacking clusters including Sapphire Sleet and UNC1069, while the FBI said the Binance theft was attributed to North Korean military hackers it calls TraderTraitor. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied North Korea's involvement in the Binance hack, while Binance said it had covered the affected assets with its own funds and published a proof-of-reserves snapshot.
North Korea has denied involvement in the Binance hack.
The DOJ said it had obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency taken in the Binance incident, and it said investigators were still working to recover additional funds. The DOJ also said the FaceStealer disruption came alongside the Binance recovery effort, but it kept the two investigations distinct as it pursued seizure and return of ill-gotten gains.
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