Three members of the United States Senate have reportedly sent a letter to the White House and Treasury Department in an effort to crack down on North Korea using cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear program and evade sanctions.
According to an Aug. 4 report in The Wall Street Journal, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen requested the Biden administration provide information on how the U.S. government was working to address the illicit use of digital assets by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The letter cited reports claiming North Korean hackers have been behind the theft of more than $3 billion worth of crypto since 2018, funds being used to fund part of the country’s missile program.
“North Korea has methodically built its expertise in digital assets over the past few years,” the three senators reportedly wrote.
Multiple news agencies have reported hackers connected to North Korea were responsible for stealing billions of dollars in crypto, sometimes using mixers in an attempt to hide funds from authorities. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control cited concerns over crypto being used to fund North Korea’s nuclear program in adding Tornado Cash to its list of sanctioned entities in November 2022.
Crypto payments platform @coinspaid suspects North Korea’s Lazarus Group is behind a $37.3 million exploit of its platform on July 22. While customer funds are safe, the firm’s balance sheet took a big hit. https://t.co/IssH0et2Gw
Warren has been behind many efforts to crack down on the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, from suggesting a link between digital asset payments and companies based in China that provided precursors to the opioid fentanyl to proposing legislation for stricter Anti-Money Laundering requirements. In July, she was part of a bipartisan group of senators who pushed provisions against crypto mixers and privacy coins in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Ms Sultana also said she was “resigning” from the Labour Party after 14 years.
She was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer for voting against the government maintaining the two-child benefit cap.
Several others from the left of the party, including Mr Corbyn, were also suspended for voting against the government, and also remained as independent MPs.
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However, Ms Sultana was still a member of the Labour Party – until now.
Mr Corbyn has previously said the independent MPs who were suspended from Labour would “come together” to provide an “alternative.
The other four are: Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain.
Mr Corbyn and the other four independents have not said if they are part of the new party Ms Sultana announced.
In her announcement, Ms Sultana said she would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap again and also voted against scrapping the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.
Ms Sultana also voted against the government’s welfare bill this week, which was heavily watered down as Sir Keir Starmer tried to prevent a major rebellion from his own MPs.
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On Wednesday, Ms Sultana spoke passionately against Palestine Action being proscribed as a terror organisation – but MPs eventually voted for it to be.
She said to proscribe it is “a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth”.
Ms Sultana said they were founding the new party because “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper – just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population”.
She called Reform leader Nigel Farage “a billionaire-backed grifter” leading the polls “because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives.
Image: Ms Sultana called Nigel Farage a ‘billionaire-backed grifter’. Pic: PA
The MP, who has spoken passionately about Gaza, added: “Across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.
“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.
“We are not going to take this anymore.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.
“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”