U.S. initiates forfeiture action against crypto linked to $879M thefts by North Korean military hacking groups Lazarus and APT38.

The United States has filed two civil forfeiture complaints targeting cryptocurrency that authorities say is tied to approximately $879 million in thefts carried out by North Korean military-linked hacking groups Lazarus Group and APT38 between 2021 and 2022. The complaints, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seek to forfeit previously seized bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT) that investigators traced to large-scale hacks of five victim organizations based in Vietnam, the United States, Singapore, and Japan. According to the OffshoreAlert report, the U.S. alleges that these funds represent proceeds of cyber-enabled heists attributed to North Korea’s state-sponsored operators, who are widely assessed by U.S. and allied agencies as helping finance the regime’s weapons and military programs. One complaint focuses on bitcoin seized from eight transactions that moved through a cryptocurrency bridge, while the other targets USDT held in five wallet addresses believed to be controlled by the hackers. These actions build on prior seizures and reflect a strategy of using civil forfeiture to neutralize illicit funds even when the hackers themselves are outside U.S. jurisdiction. The case underscores how U.S. authorities are increasingly combining blockchain tracing, sanctions enforcement, and forfeiture law to disrupt North Korea–linked cybercrime and send a deterrent signal to exchanges, OTC brokers, and other intermediaries that may unwittingly handle tainted assets. For the crypto sector, the complaints highlight ongoing regulatory and enforcement risk around cross-chain bridges, stablecoin transfers, and poorly monitored wallets that can be used to launder hacked funds. They also reinforce the message that high-profile hacks linked to sanctioned actors such as Lazarus and APT38 are likely to result in long-tail enforcement, including seizures of assets long after the original theft and wherever they can be identified on-chain and brought within U.S. reach.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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• US Targets Lazarus Group and APT38 in $879M Cryptocurrency ... (binance.com)
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• US Targets Lazarus Group and APT38 in $879M Crypto Forfeiture ... (news.bitcoin.com)

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