The US Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned ten individuals and one entity on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, for allegedly helping North Korean IT worker operations finance weapons programs. Chainalysis found that these workers received their salaries in stablecoins and ETH, generally every two weeks, before the funds were laundered back to Russia. Ilya Aleksandrovich Boykov is linked to approximately $3.5 million in crypto transactions since 2024, while Vitold Viktorovich Obertas converted nearly $2 million in crypto and was involved in an additional $1.25 million in transactions. The already-sanctioned Garantex exchange sat at the center of this cash-out network. UN estimates suggest that such IT worker operations could generate between $250 million and $600 million annually for North Korea.
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