A company that has been the victim of what is supposed to be the largest flight in the world never sought to recover some of its losses by online crowdsourcing premium hunters.
Last week, the pirates who would come from the infamous Lazare group in North Korea stole $ 1.46 billion (1.1 billion pounds sterling) by Bybit, a crypto trading platform.
Criminals are trying to quickly withdraw the treasure thanks to a complex online money laundering process.
Bybit now offers cash rewards to anyone who is marked and prevents them from taking advantage.
“Join us about the war against Lazarus”, the CEO of Ben Zhou published online with a link to a new website offering a premium to all those who can help.
Cryptocurrencies are stored in public portfolios anyone can seek, so it is possible to follow the money because the criminals divide it into small pieces and send it to various channels to obscure its origins.
The new website has a live ranking showing businesses and individuals who have managed to find certain parts.
The premium program gives 5% of the amount identified with people who successfully persuade a business that has control of funds to freeze money.
It also grants 5% to companies that act.
The website already displays millions of dollars in payments to successful crypto detectives.
“We have assigned a team to devote to the interview and update of this website, we will not stop until Lazare or the bad players in the industry are not eliminated,” said Mr. Zhou .
The Crypto Elliptic investigation company described it as a “really positive innovation”.
“There are a lot of very talented blockchain investigators who will now be motivated to find these stolen funds and to help seize them,” said Tom Robinson, of Elliptic.
There are no authorities such as central banks or regulators involved in cryptographic transactions, which means that anyone who is the victim of criminal behavior does not have an obvious organism towards which to turn to help .
It depends on the good will of other cryptographic societies to act on their behalf.
Not all.
The Bybit website follows cryptographic companies that do not meet requests for help.
An exchange called Exch apparently refuses to cooperate.
According to researchers from Cryptigators Elliptic, Exch is a remarkable platform to allow its users to exchange cryptocurrency anonymously.
In a blog article, Elliptic relieves that “hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency derived from criminal activity, including multiple flights perpetrated by North Korea” were successfully whitewashed by service.
Until now, $ 75 million in bybit has been followed in circulation on the website, according to the analysis.
Exch did not respond to requests for comments from the BBC.
Bybit promises to open its new premium website to other victims of the prolific North Korean hacking group.
The site has a logo of the North Korean leader Kim Jong one with a knife through.
Crypto investigators from around the world have awarded the hack to the group, which has been blamed for around $ 6 billion in crypto flights in recent years.
Researchers say that stolen funds are used by the Hermit State to bypass international sanctions and develop its military powers.
North Korea has never admitted to be responsible for the Lazare group.
