Chinese Crime Ring Laundered More Than $1 Billion From North Korea’s Lazarus Hacks

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A Chinese organized crime group laundered more than $1 billion of the crypto assets stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group, Cointelegraph reported.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT wrote on X on October 5 that a Chinese money-laundering network had cleaned more than $1 billion in crypto taken in multiple Lazarus-linked hacks.

ZachXBT said he approached the group a few days after the Bybit hack in February last year by posing as a paying customer. To gain the trust of a member identified as Jimmy Green, he said he put up $349,700 worth of stablecoins and accepted a 5% loss on each transaction.

According to ZachXBT, the money-laundering network operated mainly in Hong Kong and mainland China. By tracing information obtained from its members, he identified more than $12 million in fund flows linked to the Bybit hack. Tether later froze $442,000 of related USDT.