The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two Chinese Nationals accused of laundering in cryptocurrency stolen in a 2018 crypto exchange hack. At the same time, the Department of Justice announced an indictment for money laundering against the same two individuals.
Tian Yinyin (田寅寅) and Li Jiadong (李家东), materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, a malicious cyber-enabled activity, and the Lazarus Group, the OFAC alleged. The Lazarus Group is a U.S.-designated North Korean state-sponsored cyber group.
HOW EXCHANGE HACK
The Treasury said that Lazarus Group creates malware code from the now-defunct cryptocurrency application Celas Trade Pro, creating illegitimate websites and malicious software to conduct phishing attacks against the cryptocurrency sector.
In April 2018, an employee of an unnamed exchange downloaded the malware through an email, giving the hackers remote access to the exchange and unauthorized access to customers’ personal information, including Private Keys used to access crypto wallets stored on the exchange’s servers. The hackers used the private keys to steal cryptocurrencies worth $250 million at the time.
Reported By https://news.bitcoin.com | https://cointelegraph.com/
