The US Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it has dismantled a North Korean money laundering operation that utilized cryptocurrency to launder millions of dollars for the isolated nation, a leading perpetrator of cryptocurrency-related crimes. A front company based in the UAE, known as Green Alpine Trading, LLC, was found to be converting cryptocurrency into cash on behalf of North Korea, as stated in a press release by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The US government's sanctions division has added this company, along with two Chinese nationals involved in the operation since 2022, to its blacklist. The United Arab Emirates collaborated with the US in taking down the operation, as mentioned in the press release. The current status of the two sanctioned Chinese nationals, Lu Huaying and Zhang Jian, is unclear. They allegedly worked in conjunction with a DPRK agent named Sim Hyon Sop, according to the press release.
North Korea is known to be one of the most aggressive state actors targeting the cryptocurrency industry, with its agents allegedly stealing billions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency to fund the country's nuclear weapons program. However, to make digital currency useful, it must be converted into traditional fiat currency.
Green Alpine Trading may have played a role in this process, although the Treasury press release did not specify the amount of money laundered, only that it was derived from 'illicit revenue generation schemes'.