Chinese authorities accuse the United States of stealing 127,000 bitcoins
Representatives of CVERC suspect specialists from the United States of being involved in the attack. According to Chinese officials, the use of advanced tools by a “state-level hacker organization” points to this. The U.S. Department of Justice denied the allegations, stating that the seizure of the bitcoins was a lawful action by law enforcement agencies.
On December 29, 2020, the Chinese mining pool LuBian was hacked — unknown actors withdrew 127,272 BTC. The assets remained untouched for nearly four years. In June 2024, someone moved the cryptocurrency to new addresses. Experts from the blockchain company Arkham believe these addresses are controlled by U.S. authorities.
The U.S. Department of Justice reports that the LuBian mining pool was managed by the Prince Group holding company, headquartered in Cambodia. The head of the office is Chinese citizen Chen Zhi. According to U.S. authorities, Prince Group used the LuBian pool to create the appearance of “legitimate bitcoin origins” through mining.
The Prince holding company was an umbrella structure for more than a hundred shell companies used to launder funds obtained from illegal cryptocurrency operations, the DOJ insists. On October 14, U.S. authorities announced the filing of criminal charges against Chen Zhi, accusing him of crypto fraud and the seizure of 127,000 bitcoins.
Earlier, independent blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported the hack of the Japanese mining pool SBI Crypto, during which hackers stole BTC, ETH, LTC, DOGE, and BCH worth $21 million.
See also: "Scammers are using the Polymarket platform to deceive traders"
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