**[U.S. Department of Justice Seeks to Confiscate Over $15 Million in Cryptocurrency Stolen and Laundered by North Korean Hackers]** According to a report by Jinse Finance, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has obtained five plea agreements and initiated civil forfeiture actions exceeding $15 million related to illegal income generated by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) through remote IT work and cryptocurrency theft. The North Korean government uses these methods to fund its weapons programs and other key areas, violating international sanctions. Court documents associated with the plea agreements reveal that collaborators from the U.S. and Ukraine assisted North Korean individuals in fraudulently obtaining remote IT work from U.S. companies. For example, these collaborators provided their own, fake, or stolen identities and placed laptops provided by victimized U.S. companies in private residences across the U.S. to create the false impression that North Korean IT workers were operating within the country. Overall, the defendants' fraudulent employment scheme impacted more than 136 U.S. victim companies, generating over $2.2 million in revenue for the North Korean regime and resulting in the theft of identities from more than 18 U.S. individuals. According to two civil forfeiture complaints, a North Korean military hacking group referred to as "APT38" by the private sector carried out multimillion-dollar hacks on four overseas cryptocurrency platforms in 2023. As APT38 members continued laundering their illicit proceeds, the U.S. government froze and seized over $15 million in cryptocurrency and is seeking to return it to its rightful owners.