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Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

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Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#111
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think they are doing this from NK ip blocks/asn? Their physical links are more or less enemy of enemy with US, so they have no incentive to block. Its impossible to keep them off the internet.

Oh I’m not imagine anyone helping us. Im wondering why we aren’t cutting undersea cables or drone bombing land based ones. All the “international sovereignty” responses are humorous to anyone whose paid attention to the last twenty years of the American military.

Because China really wouldn’t like it, and that’s all there is to it.

Is it technically feasible? Yes.

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#112
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd imagine it's pretty easy, too. You've already got the assets in a poorly-accountable and liquid state Alright, so walk me through it because I don't see how it's easier to wash than other ill-gained funds like cash. You robbed someone and now you sit on $200M worth of Bitcoin. How you unload them so you have cash you can use, when every transaction is traceable and any exchange willing to trade for those amount…

any exchange willing to trade for those amounts do KYC and follows AML This is not true AFAIK and it used to really be not true. There were plenty of no-KYC exchanges or exchanges that offered no-KYC accounts if you had the right connections.

> This is not true AFAIK

Tell me one big exchange that'll accept a deposit of $200M USD worth of cryptocurrency without asking questions.

> exchanges that offered no-KYC accounts if you had the right connections

Yeah, and plenty of taxmen that will let you wash money if you pay them X amount, but lets try to stick to verifiable facts instead of imagining/assuming a bunch of things.

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#113

US/Canada 2024, $3 billion in fines by US regulators, https://rupakghose.substack.com/p/td-banks-aml-issues-and-fi... > DoJ investigation found.. [banking] business had been used to launder more than $650m between 2016 and 2021 from US fentanyl sales for Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers. Canada 2018, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33918115 > An estimated $5.3 billion of laundered money into B.C. real e…

> Australia Don't worry, Australia's going to fix that! By making "harming public confidence in the banking system or financial markets" "serious harm" under the upcoming Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024. And by "fix", I mean "suppress discussion about", of course.

There's no shortage of things to complain about regarding the U.S., but its First Amendment is pretty great IMHO.

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#114
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what's dumb about it. It seems like blacklisting is the digital equivalent of "I don't want to do business with criminals" - I wouldn't knowingly buy anything from a thief, or from a store that knows some of its suppliers are thieves. If law enforcement has seized the property and auctioned it, then the criminals aren't profiting, so I don't mind.

If you don't want to do business with criminals, don't buy crime futures. Because that's essentially what crypto are (unless not held and only purchased on demand for whatever oddball transaction you'd want to do that's neither speculation nor directly related to crime): demand outside of pure speculation (which is certainly by far the biggest part) must be completely dominated by demand for paying ransoms, purchasin…

> business with criminals, don't buy crime futures

Is your Crime same as my Crime?

Suppose I am a software developer living in Russia and I don’t want to pay taxes to a government that commits war crimes, is that a crime? Should a western bank be preventing that?

Suppose you were protesting in a dictatorship, and as a result your assets were seized, you have a criminal record, maybe you are collecting donations, should I as a western bank act to stop that ‘crime’?

Even simpler if you want to buy some weed, it’s a crime in country A but not in country B. Suppose so live in Country B, should I be concerned?

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#115

US/Canada 2024, $3 billion in fines by US regulators, https://rupakghose.substack.com/p/td-banks-aml-issues-and-fi... > DoJ investigation found.. [banking] business had been used to launder more than $650m between 2016 and 2021 from US fentanyl sales for Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers. Canada 2018, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33918115 > An estimated $5.3 billion of laundered money into B.C. real e…

> DoJ investigation found.. [banking] business had been used to launder more than $650m between 2016 and 2021 from US fentanyl sales for Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers.

According to the official CIA "world factbook" or whatever that is called: an estimated 3% to 5% of the world's fucking entire GDP is linked to criminal activities.

Blockchains are cool in that they allow to follow the laundering (so it allows for nice blog entries with good looking graphs, which I do appreciate), as opposed to traditional banks where it's all opaque.

But the amount of money laundered using cryptocurrencies is a drop in the bucket compared to size of criminal activities ongoing in the world (btw criminal activities predates blockchain by centuries or millenia).

And don't get me started on the missing billions when "aid" is sent to this and that country. Be it Ukraine or Haiti or whatever: there are corrupt officials and individuals at every single step of the ladder.

My favorite is the US loading a 747 with 12 billions in bills of $100 USD to "help the reconstruction of Iraq" and officially 9 billions of those 12 billions have been "lost".

Yup. Lost. That's official stuff.

So the $200m of the Lazarus group, compared to $9 billion in $100 USD bills: cry me a river.

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#116
post #2

I'd imagine it's pretty easy, too. You've already got the assets in a poorly-accountable and liquid state - now all you need is a chump to unload the bag on. Almost makes you wonder how many cryptocurrency influencers are in the pocket of sanctioned nations...

That's what the influx of shitty NFTs and "tokens" and "chains" are that keep coming up in Twitter ads these days. Criminals just building shitty bags to rip off dumb people while they launder away the profit underneath it.

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only an American would ever entertain this idea without being at least a bit tongue in cheek about it. The US doesn’t own the Internet.

[flagged]

> america is in an active state of war with NK

Hypocrisy and delusion are powerful weapons against the uninitiated, but we are initiated, aren’t we notepaf0x90?

WW2 never ended and Russia is still at war with Japan as they never signed a peace treaty.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-japan-peace-treaty-ukraine-in...

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#118

US/Canada 2024, $3 billion in fines by US regulators, https://rupakghose.substack.com/p/td-banks-aml-issues-and-fi... > DoJ investigation found.. [banking] business had been used to launder more than $650m between 2016 and 2021 from US fentanyl sales for Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers. Canada 2018, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33918115 > An estimated $5.3 billion of laundered money into B.C. real e…

> DoJ investigation found.. [banking] business had been used to launder more than $650m between 2016 and 2021 from US fentanyl sales for Chinese crime groups and drug traffickers. According to the official CIA "world factbook" or whatever that is called: an estimated 3% to 5% of the world's fucking entire GDP is linked to criminal activities. Blockchains are cool in that they allow to follow the laundering (so it all…

Do you have a source for 'My favorite is the US loading a 747 with 12 billions in bills of $100 USD to "help the reconstruction of Iraq" and officially 9 billions of those 12 billions have been "lost".'

Your numbers seem a bit off, but it is definitely an outrageous incident.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-jun-13-la-fg-mi...

"This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things."

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

A bit of fun ... but my opinion is that a war with decades long ceasefire is common-law armistice. At the very least, stopping shelling is some sort of détente. I'll admit that "War" is a somewhat colloquial term nowadays, for better or worse.

[flagged]

Re: Lazarus Group laundered $200M from 25 crypto hacks to fiat

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not ones with nuclear weapons. Or one that manufactures all the toys that keep Americans happy.

That’s true, but are they really going to lob their two nukes at Maui just because we drone bomb a few wires? The Kims like being alive.

The Kims are likely the only reliable bet for people who would actually survive a nuclear war and the following nuclear winters, if the book Nuclear War by Anne Jacobsen is to be believed. They're the only ones that have built their bunkers deep enough (under mountains) that modern thermo nuclear weapons wouldn't destroy them, and they have years of supplies down there.
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