US Court Orders Forfeiture of North Korean Crypto Tied to Money Laundering; Who Is Shim Hyon-sub with a $7M Bounty?

A U.S. court has ordered the forfeiture of certain virtual assets linked to money laundering by North Korean overseas IT workers.

According to NK News, a U.S.-based media outlet specializing in North Korea, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on the 3rd that funds held in a cryptocurrency wallet starting with the address "0x81c4" should be forfeited to the U.S. government.

U.S. prosecutors stated that the crypto wallet contains stablecoins worth 212,700 dollars, equivalent to approximately 285 million Korean won.

They claimed that this amount corresponds to the wages of at least 14 North Korean IT workers.

This ruling comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a lawsuit to forfeit 7.74 million dollars in cryptocurrency associated with North Korean overseas workers.

In June of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to forfeit North Korea-related digital assets that were seized or frozen by the U.S. government between 2022 and 2023.

The funds seized or frozen by U.S. authorities included Binance accounts belonging to individuals named Shim Hyon-sub and Kim Sang-man, whom the U.S. placed on its blacklist in 2023.

Shim Hyon-sub is accused of acting as an agent for Korea Kwangson Banking Corp., which has been placed under U.S. and United Nations sanctions for its involvement in North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program.

He is reportedly managing digital assets worth 24 million dollars, or about 32.2 billion won, which have gone through laundering processes.

Shim is also known to play a role in collecting and controlling the wages of North Korean IT workers.

The U.S. Department of Justice has offered a bounty of 7 million dollars for information regarding Shim Hyon-sub.

Kim Sang-man is known as an official of Jinryong Information Technology Cooperation Corporation, linked to the North Korean Ministry of National Defense and based in Vladivostok, Russia.

He is accused of laundering funds for North Korean IT workers operating in countries such as China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

(Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video edited by Kim Na-on | Designed by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.