The United States Treasury has issued new sanctions targeting North Korea’s cybercrime and IT worker fraud syndicate, adding eight more individuals and two corporate entities for their role in the scheme.
The latest targets include North Korean bankers Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son, who have helped process millions in ransomed digital assets taken from U.S. citizens.
It also names a North Korean company called Korea Mangyongdae Computer Technology Company, which is said to use banking proxies in China to help obfuscate the origin of funds generated by North Korea’s various criminal fundraising enterprises.
Ryujong Credit Bank, a North Korean financial institution, is also targeted for its role in laundering the proceeds of North Korea’s illicit activities.
“North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons program,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.
“By generating revenue for Pyongyang’s weapons development, these actors threaten U.S. and global security. Treasury will continue to pursue the facilitators and enablers behind these schemes to cut off the DPRK’s illicit revenue streams.”
Broadly speaking, the Treasury has been looking to clamp down on an eclectic network of illegal revenue generating schemes used by North Korea to evade international sanctions and fund its weapons programs.
These schemes include ransomware attacks on overseas computer systems, preventing their owners from accessing data and demanding payment, usually in digital assets, for access to be restored.
But the Treasury is also focused on a system of IT worker postings, whereby North Korean IT workers use false identities and spoofed resumes to gain employment at overseas companies, typically on a remote basis, in order to conduct reconnaissance on IT systems and processes as well as to funnel employment income back to the regime in contravention of sanctions.
The effect of the sanctions is that any individual or entity transacting with the sanctioned entities is at risk of being prosecuted. All assets in the U.S. associated with the sanctioned entities are effectively frozen and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The Treasury previously announced new sanctions aimed at stymying the scheme back in August, that time against individuals and entities from North Korea, Russia, and China.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/us-issues-fresh-sanctions-over-north-korean-fraud-scheme/
