A cryptocurrency wallet that the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) believes is linked to the North Korean hackers has released nearly $140,000 in Bitcoin. The transaction today was spotted by Whale Alert, a digital currency transaction tracker. Recently DoJ filed a complaint to gain control of several accounts that reportedly belongs to the hackers.
North Korean hackers moved 12 BTC
Following the tweet today from Whale Alert, 12 Bitcoins were transferred from the exchange to an unknown wallet address. However, the receiving address is thought to be a cryptocurrency account on the Huobi exchange. At the time of this incident, the transaction was worth $139,465.
The crypto tracker tweeted:
“One of the inputs of this transaction has been listed by the US government as forfeited.” It further noted that “the forfeited address is possibly a Huobi deposit address that received 2.97069728 BTC a few days ago. The address was sweeped today together with deposits made by other users.”
DoJ complaints against North Korean hackers’ crypto accounts
Last week, the Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint which was purported to enable them to gain control of about 280 cryptocurrency accounts suspected to be connected with the North Korean hackers. In the document, the DoJ alleged that the hackers laundered almost $3 billion via the accounts.
The supposed North Korean hackers’ forfeited funds were proceeds from criminal acts, and the DoJ explained how the hackers could launder some funds through the assistance of “Chinese OTC traders.”
