CryptoCurrency
Police takes down Cryptomixer cryptocurrency mixing service
Law enforcement officers from Switzerland and Germany have taken down the Cryptomixer cryptocurrency-mixing service, believed to have helped cybercriminals launder stolen funds. The joint action was part of “Operation Olympia,” and it took place between November 24 and November 28 in Zurich, Switzerland. Authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, seized three servers and the clear web […]
Crypto mixer founders sent to prison for laundering over $237 million
The founders of the Samourai Wallet (Samourai) cryptocurrency mixing service have been sent to prison for helping criminals launder over $237 million. Samourai CEO Keonne Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison on November 6th, while the cryptomixer’s Chief Technology Officer William Lonergan Hill received a four-year sentence on November 19th. Both men were […]
California man admits to laundering crypto stolen in $230M heist
A 45-year-old from Irvine, California, has pleaded guilty to laundering at least $25 million stolen in a massive $230 million cryptocurrency heist. Kunal Mehta (also known as “Papa,” “The Accountant,” and “Shrek”) is the eighth defendant to plead guilty for his participation in this scheme following charges brought by the Department of Justice in May […]
Malicious NPM packages abuse Adspect redirects to evade security
Seven packages published on the Node Package Manager (npm) registry use the Adspect cloud-based service to separate researchers from potential victims and lead them to malicious locations. The purpose of the attack is to lead victims to cryptocurrency scam sites, according to an analysis from researchers at application security company Socket. All malicious packages were published under the developer […]
Five plead guilty to helping North Koreans infiltrate US firms
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that five individuals pleaded guilty to aiding North Korea’s illicit revenue generation schemes, including remote IT worker fraud and cryptocurrency theft. As part of this, the U.S. authorities announced actions seeking the forfeiture of $15 million in cryptocurrency from heists carried out by the APT38 threat group, which is […]
US announces new strike force targeting Chinese crypto scammers
U.S. federal authorities have established a new task force to disrupt Chinese cryptocurrency scam networks that defraud Americans of nearly $10 billion annually. The Scam Center Strike Force team, supported by agents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Secret Service, investigates and prosecutes criminal groups operating large-scale cryptocurrency investment […]
New ‘IndonesianFoods’ spammer floods npm with 150,000 packages
An auto-spamming payload published on npm spams the registry by spawning new packages every seven seconds, creating large volumes of junk. The replicating payload, dubbed ‘IndonesianFoods,’ due to its distinctive package naming scheme that picks random Indonesian names and food terms, has published over 100,000 packages according to Sonatype, and the number is growing exponentially. […]
“Bitcoin Queen” gets 11 years in prison for $7.3 billion Bitcoin scam
A Chinese woman known as the “Bitcoin Queen” was sentenced in London to 11 years and eight months in jail for laundering Bitcoin from a £5.5 billion ($7.3 billion) cryptocurrency investment scheme. The sentence follows a seven-year investigation by the Met’s Economic Crime team into international money laundering, which revealed that the 47-year-old woman, Zhimin Qian […]
US sanctions North Korean bankers linked to cybercrime, IT worker fraud
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two North Korean financial institutions and eight individuals involved in laundering cryptocurrency stolen in cybercrime and fraudulent IT worker schemes. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Ryujong Credit Bank, a North Korea-based financial institution linked to sanctions-evasion activities between North Korea and China, including money laundering. OFAC […]
Police arrests suspects linked to €600 million crypto fraud ring
European law enforcement authorities have arrested nine suspected money launderers who set up a cryptocurrency fraud network that stole over €600 million ($689 million) from victims across multiple countries. The fraudsters allegedly created fake cryptocurrency investment platforms that looked legitimate and promised high returns, and recruited victims through various means, including social media and cold […]