The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing North Korean criminals involved in fraudulent IT jobs and cryptocurrency theft, seizing $15 million in USDT

According to Coindesk, U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors and investigators have seized an additional $15 million worth of USDT in their ongoing pursuit of North Korean criminals, with five defendants pleading guilty.

According to court documents related to the plea agreements, intermediaries from the U.S. and Ukraine assisted North Korean personnel in obtaining remote IT jobs at U.S. companies. These intermediaries provided their own false identities or stolen identity information and placed laptops provided by victim companies at residences across the U.S. to create the illusion that IT personnel were working domestically. The fraudulent employment schemes of these defendants affected over 136 U.S. victim companies, generating more than $2.2 million in revenue for the North Korean regime and leading to the compromise of the personal information of over 18 Americans.

Additionally, a North Korean military hacker group known as "Advanced Persistent Threat 38" (APT38) carried out millions of dollars in cryptocurrency thefts on four overseas virtual currency platforms in 2023. While APT38 members continued to launder money, the U.S. government froze and seized over $15 million worth of cryptocurrency and is currently seeking to forfeit these assets to ultimately return them to their rightful owners. North Korea has used these two schemes to raise funds for its weapons and other priorities, in violation of sanctions.