- These wallets received more than $2 million in various cryptocurrencies
- These funds were used to support programs to create weapons of mass destruction
- During the last year, there were no transactions made from these addresses
United States Treasury introduced sanctions against Binance wallets owned by North Korea. The agency said that criminal organizations used the exchange to transfer funds, which were later spent on supporting programs to create weapons of mass destruction.
In total, more than $2 million of various cryptocurrencies were received into wallets owned by Binance, which were then sent to North Korean organizations. The purses that were sanctioned belonged to 58-year-old North Korean citizen Sang Man-Kin. They stored assets such as BTC, ETH, USDT and USDC
However, this does not mean that the exchange had full control over the wallets. More like they were auto-generated exchange-listed wallet addresses that any user can sign up for. It is known that over the past year not a single transaction was registered from these addresses.
A press release from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) states:
“The DPRK engages in harmful cyber activities and uses IT workers who illegally get jobs to earn money, in particular in cryptocurrency. They support the Kim regime and its priorities, such as its illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.”