US Sanctions Firms Assisting North Korea with Cryptocurrency Money Laundering

The U.S. administration under Joe Biden has sanctioned a company that has been assisting the Lazarus Group, a hacking organization supported by North Korea, in laundering cryptocurrency.

On the 29th (local time), the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced new sanctions related to North Korea's cyber activities and listed 'Sinbad' on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List maintained by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Sinbad is a company involved in laundering cryptocurrency stolen by the Lazarus Group. It has acted as a mixer that breaks down cryptocurrency to make it difficult to trace the funds and their usage.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stated, "Mixing services that enable criminal groups like Lazarus to steal assets will face serious consequences," adding, "The Treasury and partner agencies of the U.S. government are prepared to use all means to prevent cryptocurrency mixers like Sinbad from facilitating illegal activities." With this sanction, Sinbad's assets in the U.S. will be frozen, and transactions with U.S. persons will be prohibited.

Earlier, the United Nations Security Council's North Korea Sanctions Committee, in a report released by its expert panel on the 27th of last month, cited analysis from cybersecurity firm Elliptic Enterprise, revealing that Lazarus laundered $100 million worth of Bitcoin through Sinbad. Analytical organizations view the cryptocurrency hacking and theft activities by hacker groups linked to North Korea, such as Lazarus, as aimed at supporting North Korea's nuclear development program.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.