U.S. hasn't stopped N. Korean gang from laundering its crypto haul

Source: Washington Post

U.S. hasn’t stopped N. Korean gang from laundering its crypto haul

Despite U.S. law enforcement identifying the Lazarus Group as the thieves, the hackers have laundered 17 percent of their $600 million haul

By Tory Newmyer and Jeremy B. Merrill
Today at 11:02 a.m. EDT

North Korean hackers who last month carried out one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts ever are still laundering their haul more than a week after they were identified as the thieves.

The cybercriminals’ continued access to the money, more than $600 million stolen from the Axie Infinity video game, underscores the limits of law enforcement’s ability to stop the flow of illicit cryptocurrency across the globe. The hackers are still moving their loot, most recently about $4.5 million worth of the Ethereum currency on Friday, according to data from cryptocurrency tracking site Etherscan — eight days after the Treasury Department attempted to freeze those assets by sanctioning the digital wallet the group used in its attack.

The gang, which the Treasury Department identified as the Lazarus Group, also known for the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures, so far has laundered nearly $100 million — about 17 percent — of the stolen crypto, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. They moved their haul beyond the immediate reach of U.S. authorities by converting it into the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which unlike the cryptocurrency they stole cannot be hobbled remotely. Since then, the gang has worked to obscure the crypto’s origins primarily by sending installments of it through a program called Tornado Cash, a service known as a mixer that pools digital assets to hide their owners.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/23/north-korea-hack-crypto-access/

Non-paywalled link: https://wapo.st/3KbLgbx