US obtains court approval to seize, restrain over $1.2 bil. stolen in NK Binance theft
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Binance logo is seen in this illustration taken Mar. 31, 2023. Reuters-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has said it has obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency purportedly stolen by North Korean hackers from crypto exchange Binance last month.
The $1.2 billion subject to court-authorized seizure or restraint is part of more than $2.7 billion in assets frozen by U.S. authorities and private-sector partners, following the theft of over $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance, according to a department release issued Thursday.
The hackers, identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a group called TraderTraitor, are continuing to launder the stolen assets through cryptocurrency bridges, mixers and exchanges, while U.S. authorities work to trace and recover the funds, according to the department.
“North Korea’s government bankrolls its rogue regime and illicit weapons program through cryptocurrency theft,” said M. Scott Proctor, principal deputy assistant attorney general for national security. “Today’s announcement shows that America will fight back against that corrupt regime’s effort to profit through cybercrime.”
The department said the FBI, in coordination with the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service, issued a cyber alert last week attributing the Binance theft to North Korea and urging virtual asset service providers to block transactions involving or derived from cryptocurrency addresses used to launder the stolen funds.
Separately, the department announced the disruption of a North Korean hacking campaign known as FaceStealer, which used deepfake videos and fraudulent online meetings to steal more than $400 million in cryptocurrency over the past 18 months.
The FBI seized cloud-based infrastructure used in the campaign and more than 900 webcam videos of victims. The hackers also increasingly targeted developers and maintainers of open-source software in apparent attempts to enable broader software supply-chain attacks, the department said.
