The US Department of Justice has charged 28 North Korean citizens and five Chinese citizens with laundering more than $2.5 billion through some 200 shell companies to finance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) The US Department of Justice has charged 28 North Korean citizens and five Chinese citizens with laundering more than $2.5 billion through some 200 shell companies to finance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development program, an indictment unsealed on Thursday said.
"[T]he defendants and other co-conspirators opened and operated covert branches of FTB [The State Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea] ...including in Thailand, Libya, Austria, Russia, Kuwait and China," the indictment said
According to the indictment, the network successfully circumvented the international sanctions regime and US authorities have responded by seizing the assets being moved by the indicted individuals where they could get them.
"The specific property subject to forfeiture includes $63,511,387.85 frozen and seized by the US government between October19, 2015 and January 9, 2020," the document added.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un convened his top military council this week to discuss expanding the country's nuclear arsenal, according to published reports.
