A U.S. court ordered the forfeiture of about $212,700 (about 284.5 million won) in virtual assets suspected of being linked to money laundering by North Korean overseas information technology (IT) workers.
NK News, a U.S.-based outlet specializing in North Korea, reported on the 7th (local time) that Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on the 3rd that the U.S. government could forfeit funds kept in a virtual-asset wallet whose address begins with "0x81c4."
According to U.S. prosecutors, the wallet contains stablecoins presumed to be wages received by at least 14 North Korean IT workers. They are 158,123 USDC and 54,574 USDT, both U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoins, totaling about $212,700.
A stablecoin is a virtual asset that reduces price volatility by pegging its value to a specific asset such as the U.S. dollar.
The ruling is part of an ongoing lawsuit by the U.S. Ministry of Justice to forfeit $7.74 million (about 10.35302 billion won) in virtual assets linked to North Korean overseas workers.
In June last year, the U.S. Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to forfeit North Korea–related virtual assets seized or frozen by the U.S. government in 2022–2023.
Judge Contreras sided with the government only for the funds kept in the "0x81c4" wallet among the assets for which the Ministry of Justice sought forfeiture. He did not allow forfeiture of the remaining virtual-asset wallets on the grounds that ownership and other factors had not been reasonably verified.
Assets seized or frozen by U.S. authorities also included accounts at the virtual-asset exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. belonging to Sim Hyun-seop and Kim Sang-man, who were added to the U.S. sanctions list in 2023.
Sim Hyun-seop is accused of acting as an agent for Joson Kwangson Bank, which is subject to U.S. and U.N. sanctions for ties to North Korea's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program. He is said to have managed $24 million (about 3.21 billion won) in laundered digital assets and to have pooled and controlled wages of North Korean IT workers.
U.S. prosecutors indicted Sim Hyun-seop on two counts of conspiracy to launder money. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has placed him on its wanted list, and the U.S. Ministry of Justice has offered a $7 million (9.3 billion won) reward for information.
Kim Sang-man is known to operate out of Vladivostok, Russia, and to lead the Jinyeong Information Technology Development Cooperative, which is linked to North Korea's Ministry of National Defense. He is accused of laundering funds for North Korean IT workers employed in China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).