The U.S. Department of Justice said it had frozen and seized more than $7.74 million in cryptocurrency linked to an alleged scheme involving North Korean IT workers, then filed a civil forfeiture complaint on June 5, 2025. A September 2026 news report later described a judge ordering forfeiture of about $212,700 in stablecoins. Those figures refer to different stages and amounts: the DOJ announcement described the broader pool of assets, while the later report concerned a partial forfeiture order.
What did the Justice Department seek to forfeit?
On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had filed a civil forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. DOJ said the government had already frozen and seized more than $7.74 million connected to an alleged scheme to obtain remote IT work and move cryptocurrency for North Korea. A civil forfeiture complaint asks a court to determine whether specified property can be forfeited; filing one does not establish that the allegations are true or that all the assets have been forfeited.
Read DOJ’s June 5, 2025 announcement, which summarizes the complaint and the government’s allegations.
What does the complaint allege?
How the workers allegedly obtained jobs
According to DOJ’s summary of the complaint, North Korean IT workers deployed abroad, including in China and Russia, allegedly secured remote positions at companies, including blockchain development firms. The complaint says they used fraudulent or fraudulently obtained identity documents and other concealment tactics to disguise their identities and locations.
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DOJ says employers often paid salaries in stablecoins, including USDC and USDT. The allegation is that the workers’ employment and earnings were part of a scheme benefiting North Korea; the complaint is not a judicial finding about any employer’s knowledge or conduct.
How the money allegedly moved
The complaint describes a range of alleged methods for moving or disguising proceeds:
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- Using fictitious accounts and making a series of small transfers.
- Moving assets between blockchains, a practice often called chain hopping.
- Swapping one virtual currency for another.
- Buying non-fungible tokens (NFTs), using U.S.-based online accounts, and commingling funds.
DOJ says some funds were sent through Sim Hyon Sop and Kim Sang Man. It identifies Sim as a representative of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, and describes Kim as head of Chinyong, also called Jinyong IT Cooperation Company, which DOJ says is subordinate to North Korea’s Ministry of Defense. These descriptions and the alleged transfers are claims made by the government.
DOJ states that the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Sim on April 24, 2023, and designated Chinyong and Kim on May 23, 2023. The designations provide background to the case but do not, by themselves, prove the forfeiture complaint’s allegations.
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What happened after the complaint?
A September 8, 2026 Aju Press report says a federal judge ordered forfeiture of about $212,700 in stablecoins, describing it as a partial victory in DOJ’s broader action involving more than $7.74 million in assets. The order itself and the court docket are not available in the cited reporting reviewed here, so its exact scope, the status of the other assets, and whether the case has otherwise concluded cannot be confirmed from that report alone.
The reported $212,700 order should not be treated as the final disposition of the entire amount DOJ identified in 2025. One figure is the broader amount DOJ said had been frozen and seized; the other is the smaller amount Aju Press attributed to a later partial order.
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Read Aju Press’s September 8, 2026 report. It is a secondary account, not the underlying court order.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How this case relates to separate criminal charges
The forfeiture complaint followed DOJ’s announcement of two federal indictments charging Sim with alleged conspiracies involving North Korean IT workers’ illegal employment and over-the-counter cryptocurrency traders. An indictment is a formal accusation, not proof of guilt. The criminal charges and the civil action over assets are related in DOJ’s account, but they are distinct legal proceedings.
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DOJ’s wider initiative is described in its announcement of actions to disrupt a North Korean IT worker scheme. The existence of that broader initiative does not change the allegation-versus-finding distinction in this particular forfeiture case.
Quick Recap
What the case does—and does not—establish
- Established as a procedural event: DOJ announced a civil forfeiture complaint on June 5, 2025, seeking assets it said totaled more than $7.74 million and had been frozen and seized.
- Alleged, not proved by the complaint: The identities and locations concealed by workers, how they obtained jobs, the flow of cryptocurrency, and the role of named individuals and entities.
- Reported later, but not independently confirmed from the order: Aju Press said a judge ordered forfeiture of about $212,700 in stablecoins in September 2026.
- Not established by the cited materials: The precise scope of that order, what happened to the rest of the assets, and the complete final status of the civil case.
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