A lawyer has appeared in the Arbitrum DAO forum, informing delegates that they cannot release 30,765 ETH frozen after the recent rsETH exploit into a recovery effort. The attorney, Charles Gerstein, represents victims of North Korean terrorism and has filed a restraining notice under New York law on behalf of three sets of judgment creditors with approximately $877 million in claims against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The claims date back decades, including the 1972 Lod Airport massacre and the abduction and killing of Reverend Kim Dong Shik in 2000.
The plaintiffs won their cases, but North Korea has never paid, and the families have been searching for any North Korean property to seize to satisfy their judgments. Gerstein's filing argues that the frozen ETH, linked to the Lazarus Group, qualifies as North Korean property under U.S.
law, giving the families a senior claim on the funds. The legal mechanism used is a New York enforcement tool that allows creditors to freeze assets with a restraining notice, without a new court order. Arbitrum's involvement stems from its Security Council freezing the ETH after the exploit, effectively placing the funds under its control.
The filing has drawn pushback, with some arguing that the ETH belongs to the original rsETH depositors and that blocking the recovery effort would shift the cost of North Korea's debt onto a different set of victims.