Summary
- China’s government accuses the US of stealing $13 billion worth of bitcoin from the LuBian mining pool in 2020.
- The US confirms possession of the funds, but says it was a money laundering seizure linked to Chen Zhi, from the Prince Group.
- Chen Zhi’s defense disputes the version and claims that the funds were stolen.
The United States allegedly stole approximately US$13 billion in bitcoin from China, according to the Asian country’s cybersecurity agency. In a report published on Sunday (09/11), the institution accuses the US of being behind the theft of 127,272 bitcoins from the LuBian mining pool, which occurred in December 2020.
The complaint came from China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC), according to a report from Nikkei Asia. It is worth remembering that China has been fighting bitcoin since 2021 and trading in the currency is prohibited in the country, even though it is not illegal to possess them.
According to CVERC, the behavior of the funds after the robbery suggests a coordinated and unusual action. The report points out that the tokens remained parked in the attacker’s wallet for four years, which is “clearly not the behavior of a typical hacker, eager to make a profit,” says the document. Because of this, the agency classifies the act as a state-level hacking operation.
China has previously accused the US of other cyber attacks this year. Last month, the country accused the US government of attacking the National Weather Service Center. THE Bloomberg notes, however, that the Chinese allegations lack forensic details.
What does the US say?
The US government has admitted that it does, in fact, hold the funds. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in October the seizure of 127,271 bitcoins, in what it called the largest confiscation action in history. However, US authorities deny the theft.
The US version is that the funds were seized as part of a case against Chen Zhi, a Chinese-Cambodian tycoon who founded the Prince Group. Chen was indicted in New York on charges of fraud and money laundering, as well as allegedly running forced labor scam center operations in Cambodia.
According to the DOJ indictment, Chen and other accomplices used illicit profits to finance “large-scale” cryptocurrency mining operations, including LuBian.
Tycoon also has a version
Chen Zhi’s lawyer, Matthew L. Schwartz, rejected the US government’s accusations and called the confiscation of the bitcoins an “illegal asset seizure.”
In a letter to the US court, as reported by BloombergChen’s defense asked for more time to “trace the bitcoin that the government seized.” According to the lawyer, the funds were actually stolen in 2020, corroborating the date of the hack.
Chen Zhi’s Prince Group is also the target of investigations in other countries. Authorities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have already frozen or seized hundreds of millions of dollars in assets linked to the company.
Source: https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/china-acusa-estados-unidos-de-roubo-de-bitcoins/
