According to the US Treasury, North Korean hackers and scammers use loopholes in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry to conceal illicit activity and launder money.
In a Thursday report, the federal agency said that North Korean hackers and other entities engaged in criminal activities had benefited from the non-compliance of various DeFi platforms with certain Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regulations.
The research also stated that weak or nonexistent AML/CFT controls for DeFi services in other countries, along with weak cybersecurity measures for DeFi providers, contribute to money theft.
“The assessment finds that illicit actors, including ransomware cybercriminals, thieves, scammers, and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) cyber actors, are using DeFi services in the process of transferring and laundering their illicit proceeds.”
