FBI says US has seized US$1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen from Binance

Summary

• The FBI seized over $1.2 billion of cryptocurrency stolen from Binance.
• The total theft of approximately $6.3 billion is the largest crypto heist in history.
• The U.S. government attributes the Binance hack to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor.
• Authorities have combined to freeze more than $2.7 billion of the stolen funds.
• The Justice Department obtained court authorization to seize or restrain the newly seized $1.2 billion.
• U.S. officials typically file a forfeiture claim with a judge to determine legitimate ownership of recovered funds.
• North Korea is also blamed for a separate social engineering scheme called FaceStealer.
• The FaceStealer scheme resulted in the theft of $400 million over the last 18 months.
• FaceStealer involves hijacking messaging apps & recording deepfake videos.
• U.S. officials accuse North Korea of using cyber schemes to fund its regime & illicit weapons program.