Treasury sanctions North Koreans, Russians for alleged IT fraud
The action targets facilitators and workers who used fake identities and cryptocurrency transfers to send millions back to Pyongyang.
- On Wednesday, the Treasury Department sanctioned 10 individuals and the First Financial and Technical Development Center, targeting government-run schemes using IT workers to defraud businesses and generate revenue for North Korea's weapons programs.
- Pyongyang's state-run operations involve IT workers fraudulently securing employment at foreign companies, funnelling wages back to the regime to fund ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.
- Russian national Vitold Viktorovich Obertas processed nearly $2 million in cryptocurrency and at least $1.25 million in currency for DPRK officials, while North Korean national Kim Ki Hyok transferred nearly $500,000 in cryptocurrency.
- The Treasury Department blocked all U.S.-linked property of designated individuals, prohibiting Americans from engaging with them, as Australia and the European Union also imposed North Korea-related sanctions this month.
- Although President Donald Trump held summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, diplomatic efforts stalled over nuclear weapons, and Trump recently downplayed the idea of another high-profile meeting next month.
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The department stated that the benefits derived from these activities go to illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles programmes in North Korea.
US sanctions 10 North Korean and Russian nationals for role in IT worker fraud
The U.S. has announced new sanctions against 10 North Korean and Russian nationals for their role in IT worker schemes that “defraud American businesses” and generate revenue for Pyongyang’s weapons programs. In a press release on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight North Korean and two […]
The European Union (EU) and 11 other countries, including the United States, South Korea, and Australia, have called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
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