Two Chinese OTC bitcoin exchangers have been sanctioned by the United States for helping hackers launder money

Text title: "two Chinese OTC bitcoin exchangers sanctioned by us"

In monetary news, the U.S. Treasury Department's office of foreign assets control (OFAC) announced on Monday that two Chinese citizens had been sanctioned for helping launder money from north Korea's Lazarus hacking group. The two Chinese nationals run an over-the-counter bitcoin exchange business that helps customers convert bitcoins into legal ones. & have spent & have spent

The Chinese citizens under sanctions are tian yinyin of nanjing, jiangsu province, and li jiadong of anshan, liaoning province. Tian and li received more than $91 million worth of cryptocurrency from north Korean hackers, according to a Treasury statement. The money was stolen in an attack in April 2018 in which hackers stole $250 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to the announcement.

Mr. Tian transferred $34 million worth of illegal funds through renminbi bank accounts linked to his bitcoin address, and nearly $1.4 million worth of bitcoins into prepaid Apple iTunes gift CARDS to buy bitcoins, the notice said.

The notice did not identify which exchange was stolen. Coincheck, Japan's largest exchange, was one of the biggest security incidents involving damaged assets in 2018.

The us Treasury also published their online names and 20 bitcoin addresses on its sanctions list.

Coin learned that the two Chinese citizens were OTC merchants on multiple exchanges. At present, li jiadong's OTC account at localbitcoin has been suspended, and WeChat, which is bound to the mobile phone number of anshan, liaoning, has also been cancelled. Mr. Tian's OTC account at CoinCola is still trading. & have spent & have spent

& have spent Because of the sanctions, the Chinese citizens' property rights in the United States will be frozen and their dealings with or within the United States will be prohibited. In addition, the financial institutions they helped could face U.S. Treasury sanctions.

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Named after the biblical resurrection of Lazarus Group, the hacker Group is notorious in the cyber security world for creating malicious software such as WannaCry. On September 13, 2019, the us Treasury Department designated it as the subordinate agency of the north Korean government. The United Nations report estimated that north Korea stole $571 million worth of cryptocurrency in 2019. The proceeds are invested by the north Korean regime in its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.

Japanese and south Korean exchanges and groups of miners have been the main victims of north Korean hacking. Coincheck, Bithumb, Youbit, Coinlink, Nicehash and others have reportedly been attacked by north Korean hackers, with the vast majority of the stolen currency going to Chinese exchanges via OTC.

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