Jon Chang Hyok, Park Jin Hyok, California 2021

Three North Korean computer programmers have been charged in a wide-ranging scheme to conduct a series of destructive cyberattacks, steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies, create and deploy multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, and develop and fraudulently market a blockchain platform.

The indictment alleges that Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36, were members of units of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), a military intelligence agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which engaged in criminal hacking. These North Korean military hacking units are known by multiple names in the cybersecurity community, including Lazarus Group and Advanced Persistent Threat 38 (APT38).

Park was previously charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in September 2018.

The indictment alleges a broad array of criminal cyber activities undertaken by the conspiracy, in the United States and abroad, for revenge or financial gain. The schemes alleged include: cyberattacks on the entertainment industry, cyber-enabled heists of financial institutions, creation and deployment of malicious cryptocurrency applications, and development and fraudulent marketing of a blockchain platform.

“As laid out in today’s indictment, North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The indictment was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, and Park Jin Hyok are charged with participating in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to conduct a series of destructive cyberattacks, steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies, create and deploy multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, and develop and fraudulently market a blockchain platform. Their exact charges are conspiracy to conduct enterprise hacking, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Case details: Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, and Park Jin Hyok, Los Angeles, California, February 17, 2021. No sentence has been handed down yet. The indictment alleges that the trio has stolen and extorted more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies.

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