US wins seizure authority over $1.2bn in Binance hack crypto

The US Justice Department said Nov. 12 it had obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance on or about Oct. 29, according to the department’s announcement of the court-authorized action.

The authorization covers part of a larger effort to track the stolen assets. The Justice Department said government and private-sector partners had frozen more than $2.7 billion in total, and that the authorized amount was included in that sum.

• More than $6 billion stolen: The Justice Department said North Korean military members, whom the FBI calls TraderTraitor, took more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance on or about Oct. 29.
• More than $2.7 billion frozen: That is the total frozen through US government and private-sector efforts since the theft, according to the department.
• More than $1.2 billion authorized: Courts authorized the US to seize or restrain this portion of the frozen assets, the department said.

The FBI attributed the theft to North Korea in an Oct. 31 alert and said it had observed the actors converting stolen assets primarily into Ether. In that Binance attack alert, the FBI urged virtual asset service providers, DeFi services and instant exchanges to block transactions involving addresses linked to laundering the funds.

The Justice Department said the actors continued moving assets through cryptocurrency bridges, mixers and exchanges. The department described its action as court-authorized seizure or restraint; its announcement did not say the assets had been finally forfeited or returned to Binance.

US efforts to trace, freeze, seize and forfeit the stolen assets are ongoing, the Justice Department said. The FBI, Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation are coordinating recovery work, according to the department.

Source material

• announcement of the court-authorized action — justice.gov
• Binance attack alert — fbi.gov