October 7, 2024 at 08:30PM
The US government filed two lawsuits to recover over $2.67 million stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The first lawsuit stems from the 2022 Deribit hack, where about $28 million was drained and $1.7 million worth of Tether was recovered. The second lawsuit involves the alleged theft of $41 million from Stake.com. The FBI and Department of Justice have taken actions to freeze and recover funds related to these crimes. These actions are believed to be linked to the notorious crypto group responsible for the $234.9 million WazirX exchange hack.
From the meeting notes, the key takeaways are:
The US government has filed two lawsuits to forfeit millions in Tether and Bitcoin stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The first lawsuit relates to the 2022 Deribit hack where about $28 million was drained from the crypto exchange’s hot wallet. The second lawsuit concerns the alleged theft of $41 million from Stake.com. The Lazarus Group used virtual currency mixers and bridges to launder the stolen funds. Law enforcement was able to freeze some assets, but the North Koreans were still able to transfer most of the stolen funds. The FBI recovered additional BTC and the Department of Justice served a federal seizure warrant for those funds. The lawsuits also implicate the same group in the $234.9 million WazirX exchange hack.