$15.1 million recovery battle: FBI freezes North Korean Hacker's stolen funds, money laundering chain is still in operation.

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice submitted two civil forfeiture applications aimed at recovering 15.1 million USD worth of USDT—an amount stolen in 2023 by a military hacker organization from four overseas encryption platforms.

The organization codenamed “APT38” is quite significant, specializing in stealing coins. The FBI managed to freeze this money in March of this year, and now they are just waiting for the court's approval to return the money to those unfortunate victim platforms.

However, the matter is far from over. These hackers are still active, and the money is being laundered very smoothly—cross-chain bridges, mixers, various exchanges, over-the-counter traders, all available channels are being used. Law enforcement agencies stated that the tracking work is still ongoing, and they need to gradually untangle the money trail.

Interestingly, on the same day, the Department of Justice also announced the capture of five accomplices: four Americans and one Ukrainian. These individuals have all pleaded guilty, admitting to helping North Korean IT personnel create fake identities, setting up company computers at home, and disguising themselves as these individuals working on U.S. soil. In other words, they were providing cover for the Hacker organization, allowing them to sneak into American companies and earn money openly.

From stealing coins to money laundering and then to labor fraud, the entire industrial chain is terrifyingly complete.