North Korea’s $600 million fake-worker empire has a hidden crypto connection
The US Treasury sanctioned 10 people and one entity accused of helping North Korean IT workers convert earnings from fraudulent remote jobs into funds for the regime. Two Russian nationals allegedly processed about $5.5 million in cryptocurrency and other transactions, including through sanctioned exchange Garantex. Chainalysis traced recurring stablecoin salary payments to a developer who contributed code to blockchain and DeFi projects, then followed funds through intermediaries linked to sanctioned entities. Treasury said the workers’ operations can also enable malware deployment and data theft. It designated crypto addresses associated with several suspects to help exchanges identify the network; US persons are generally barred from dealing with designated parties and must block covered assets.
