The US Department of Justice has seized over $7.74 million in cryptocurrency, uncovering a sophisticated money laundering scheme involving North Korean hackers posing as tech workers. This case exposes a new front in cybercrime where AI and crypto are being weaponized to circumvent international sanctions and fund the regime’s weapons programs. The perpetrators infiltrated US and global job markets using stolen or fake identities, securing lucrative developer roles and collecting salaries paid in stablecoins like USDT and USDC. They then used classic money laundering techniques like mixing services and smurfing to obscure the origins of the funds before transferring them to North Korea.