Binance has frozen assets worth $4.4 million in cryptocurrencies that were mostly linked to North Korean hackers. These hackers were operating within the country and abroad. This decision has been taken on the 25th of May. Binance assisted US law enforcement to tackle this issue. North Korea faces a lot of sanctions and the hackers are turning other ways to raise illicit funds and they are also involved in the theft of crypto.
Illicit Funding Blocked
Binance in collaboration with US law enforcement has been able to stop the illicit funding of four main entities namely Pyongyang University of Automation, Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, Technical Reconnaissance Bureau and the 110th Research Center. These entities were involved in illegal cyber activities which were under the support of the North Korean government.
The 110th Research Center is a unit under the notorious Lazarus Group which is responsible for various cryptocurrency hacks around the world including a hack of $620 million on Axie Infinity. Most of these individuals are trained at the Pyongyang University of Automation. Freezing their accounts disrupted the revenue generation that they carried out through illicit means.
The revenue they generated through illicit means is mostly used for the funding of the ballistic missile programmes of North Korea. These trained criminals use fake IDs of other people to apply for various tech jobs around the world and they launder money back to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) through crypto exchanges.
Binance Tries All Means to Stop Such Criminals
Binance is committed to stopping illegal funding which can pose a threat to humanity. The team at Binance said that they are trying their level best to prevent such activities. Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance said that they have recovered around $5.8 million from the Lazarus Group.
