A US court has ordered the forfeiture of a portion of cryptocurrency linked to money laundering by overseas North Korean information technology (IT) workers, US North Korea-focused media outlet NK News reported on September 7 (local time).

According to the report, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on September 3 that funds held in a cryptocurrency wallet starting with the address '0x81c4' should be forfeited to the US government.

US prosecutors stated that the cryptocurrency wallet contains stablecoins valued at $212,700 (approx. 285 million won).

Prosecutors claim the wallet holds 158,123 USDC and 54,574 USDT, estimated to be the wages of at least 14 North Korean IT workers.

USDC and USDT are stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, featuring low price volatility.

The ruling came as the US Department of Justice is pursuing a lawsuit to forfeit approximately $7.74 million (10.38 billion won) in cryptocurrency connected to North Korean overseas workers.

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

Judge Contreras ruled in favor of the Justice Department for only a portion of the funds in the lawsuit.

He declined to order the forfeiture of cryptocurrency addresses other than '0x81c4' on the grounds that they had not been reasonably identified.

The funds seized or frozen by US authorities included Binance (cryptocurrency exchange) accounts belonging to individuals named Shim Hyon-sop and Kim Sang-man, whom the US blacklisted in 2023.

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

He is reportedly managing digital assets worth $24 million (approx. 32.2 billion won) that have gone through laundering processes.

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

He has been indicted in the United States on two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering and placed on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) most-wanted list.

The US Department of Justice has offered a reward of up to $7 million (approx. 9.4 billion won) for information leading to Shim.

Kim Sang-man operates based in Vladivostok, Russia, and is known as the head of the Jinyang Information Technology Development Cooperation Company, which is linked to North Korea's Ministry of National Defence.

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

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)