How North Korea laundered money through a Vietnamese crypto company

A recent investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has exposed a sophisticated money laundering operation involving a Vietnamese online financial firm and North Korean operatives.

 The Vietnamese company, Quangvietdnbg International Services Co. Ltd., was found to have played a central role in converting illicit earnings from North Korean information technology workers into cryptocurrency to fund the regime's weapons of mass destruction programs, News.Az reports, citing Korea Times.

According to the Treasury, the scheme involved North Korean workers obtaining overseas jobs under false identities, often by using borrowed-name accounts on electronic payment platforms like Payoneer.

These workers generated nearly $800 million in 2024 alone. Quangvietdnbg and its CEO, Nguyen Quang Viet, facilitated the movement of these funds by converting approximately $2.5 million into cryptocurrency between mid-2023 and mid-2025. This process allowed the North Korean government to bypass international sanctions and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars back to Pyongyang.

The operation was closely linked to Amnokgang Technology Development Co., a Pyongyang-based entity that manages overseas delegations of IT workers. Investigators found that the Vietnamese firm used a professional and polished presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Telegram to recruit clients and move funds through a complex web of centralized exchanges, hosted wallets, and decentralized finance services.

In response to these findings, the U.S. government has frozen all U.S.-based assets belonging to the designated individuals and entities. Following the imposition of U.S. sanctions, Vietnamese authorities reportedly revoked Quangvietdnbg's business license, although the company’s digital channels remained active for a period afterward.

News.Az 

By Leyla Şirinova