U.S. authorities have issued a $7 million bounty for Shim Hyun-seop, a 42-year-old figure described as a core operator among North Korea’s so-called shadow bankers. He is part of an overseas network that, despite sanctions, earns foreign currency through thousands of disguised workers and hackers operating in Russia, China, and Africa. Shim’s role centered on laundering funds for the Kim Jong-un regime, leveraging cryptocurrency to move money and support weapons procurement. Prosecutors say much of the funds moved through the U.S. financial system, with major banks processing large transactions without recognizing ties to North Korea.
Shim Hyun-seop served as a representative of a Foreign Trade Bank subsidiary abroad, stationed in regions including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. While there, he reportedly explained money-laundering methods to Ryu Hyun-woo, a former chargé d’affaires at the North Korean embassy in Kuwait, detailing how funds traverse multiple countries and front companies, with brokers paid to conceal their origins. The proceeds from North Korea’s IT workers and hackers—accumulated through hacking and illicit labor—flow through several digital wallets before reaching North Korean bankers overseas. Shim allegedly converted cryptocurrencies to dollars via brokers and used shell-company accounts to manage the funds, avoiding direct remittance to North Korea and purchasing goods overseas to sidestep sanctions.
In 2019, he reportedly spent $300,000 to buy a helicopter in Harbin, a transaction routed through a Zimbabwean law firm. Investigators estimate that one laundering operation managed 310 transactions totaling about $74 million through U.S. banks such as Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Chainalysis notes that North Korea, via bankers like Shim, has diverted more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency. Ryu Hyun-woo later recalled Shim as “the most useful figure in money laundering” in the Arab region.
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