The Shadowy Crypto Services Helping the Binance Hackers Launder Stolen Billions, by Sam Kessler and Dylan Tokar
The Journal's reporting was picked up by other outlets, including Gulf News, whose coverage is free to read: Binance hackers used over 10,000 wallets to move stolen billions (Nov. 7, 2026).
The Wall Street Journal quoted founding partner Scott Armstrong in its November 7, 2026 report on the laundering of funds stolen from Binance. The FBI attributes the theft, more than $6 billion taken on or about October 29, 2026, to North Korean hackers. The Journal reports that cross-chain swap and coin-mixing services continued to process the stolen funds, and to collect fees on them, after the FBI urged service providers to block those transactions.
Scott told the Journal that, for some of these services, offering routes to evade detection after exploits, thefts, and hacks functions almost as part of the business model.
Whether that model creates criminal liability for any individual is a separate question. A money laundering charge requires proof that a specific person knew the funds were criminal proceeds. The developers of these services argue that they cannot, or should not, intervene when others misuse their protocols. DOJ has directed prosecutors not to target mixing services for the acts of their end users, and its Criminal Division has said that writing code without ill intent is not a crime. The line between building or operating software and knowingly moving stolen funds is where these cases will be decided.
Scott is a former Assistant Chief in the Justice Department's Fraud Section, where he investigated, supervised, and tried a range of multi-million-dollar crypto fraud and money laundering cases. He was lead trial attorney in the first trial conviction for conspiracy to commit crypto securities manipulation under Title 15, a Southern District of Florida case involving more than $300 million in spoof orders and wash trades placed by an automated trading bot. He defends individuals nationwide in federal crypto fraud and money laundering investigations through the firm's Cryptocurrency Fraud & Money Laundering Defense practice.
