Washington — The FBI said Thursday it has seized more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies reported stolen last month from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
THE theft of around $6.3 billion from Binance is considered to be the the biggest crypto heist in historyand the FBI has already attributed it to a North Korean hacker group known as TraderTraitor.
The U.S. government and the private sector have so far combined to freeze more than $2.7 billion in stolen funds, and the Justice Department said Thursday it had obtained court authorization to seize or withhold more than $1.2 billion of that total.
Typically, in these situations, the U.S. government files a forfeiture request with a judge, who will then determine who has a lawful claim to the recovered funds.
Also Thursday, the FBI accused North Korea of carrying out a separate social engineering project that authorities say resulted in the theft of $400 million in cryptocurrency over the past 18 months. This scheme, known as FaceStealer, involves a complex chain of events combining the hijacking of popular messaging apps and the recording of deepfake videos.
U.S. officials have repeatedly accused North Korea of using cyber strategies to generate funds for its regime, including its illicit weapons program.
“Cryptocurrency has unfortunately become a fertile ground for North Korea to defraud victims and fund its malicious activities,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in a Justice Department statement. “Today’s seizure shows that America will continue the fight against rogue states that profit financially from cybercrime.”
DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in the statement: “By taking action at all times, we worked together to freeze this massive criminal fraud. The North Korean regime may think they are sophisticated cybercriminals, but we have always confronted them head-on, as we did here by seizing more than $1.2 billion of their stolen assets. »
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