{"id":71951,"date":"2026-05-02T15:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/zachxbt-exposes-us-law-firm-gerstein-harrows-71m-grab-of-stolen-lazarus-funds\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T15:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:50:27","slug":"zachxbt-exposes-us-law-firm-gerstein-harrows-71m-grab-of-stolen-lazarus-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/zachxbt-exposes-us-law-firm-gerstein-harrows-71m-grab-of-stolen-lazarus-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"ZachXBT Exposes US Law Firm Gerstein Harrow&#8217;s $71M Grab of Stolen Lazarus Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">ZachXBT named Gerstein Harrow LLP for filing fake DPRK claims to seize $71M in frozen KelpDAO funds. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Lazarus Group has stolen over $6 billion since 2017 and caused 76% of all 2026 <span>crypto<\/span> hack losses. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight:400\">ZachXBT has proposed a community <span>DAO<\/span> to counter the firm legally, as recovery for actual victims remains blocked.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight:400\">A Legal Scheme Built on Old Judgments<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The target is Gerstein Harrow LLP, a boutique litigation firm attempting to claim approximately $71 million in frozen ether ( <span>ETH<\/span>) connected to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/arbitrum-security-council-freezes-kelpdao-exploiter-eth\/\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">April 2026 KelpDAO exploit<\/span><\/a>.<span style=\"font-weight:400\"> The strategy rests on a 2015 U.S. court judgment from the Han Kim et al. case against North Korea, a ruling that stems from the abduction of a South Korean reverend in 2000 and has no direct connection to the current hack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Lazarus Group, the North Korean state-backed hacking collective, is suspected of draining approximately $290 million from KelpDAO on April 18, 2026, by exploiting a vulnerability in its Layerzero V2 bridge. The Arbitrum Security Council responded by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/lazarus-group-suspected-of-moving-175m-in-eth-after-arbitrum-freezes-71m-from-kelpdao-exploit\/\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">freezing 30,766 ETH<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> worth roughly $71 million in an emergency onchain action designed to prevent further laundering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Gerstein Harrow LLP has stepped in to argue that the frozen funds should be redirected to satisfy the 2015 judgment, effectively placing its clients ahead of the actual 2026 hack victims in any recovery queue.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cPure Evil,\u201d ZachXBT\u2019s Verdict<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">ZachXBT, whose onchain work was instrumental in building the evidence base that led to the freeze, was unsparing in his assessment. \u201cThis is a predatory U.S. law firm with a strategy that is pure evil,\u201d he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zachxbt\/status\/2050416231807906040\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">wrote on X<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> while also criticizing the firm for leveraging research he produced.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_811086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-811086\" style=\"width:743px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-811086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image source: X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The frustration within the <span>crypto<\/span> community is compounded by what the tactic achieves in practice as it clogs the legal recovery process, buys time for hackers to move remaining funds, and leaves genuine victims waiting. ZachXBT separately proposed that the community form a decentralized autonomous organization ( <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-a-dao\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DAO<\/a>) to take coordinated legal action against the firm, a suggestion that drew immediate and widespread support.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight:400\">A Growing Legal Front in the Hack Wars<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The broader context makes the scheme especially troubling, given that North Korea\u2019s Lazarus Group has stolen over $6 billion in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/a-quick-introduction-to-crypto\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">crypto<\/a> since 2017, accounting for 76% of all <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/a-quick-introduction-to-crypto\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">crypto<\/a> hack losses recorded so far in 2026. The KelpDAO exploit is the second major Lazarus operation within weeks, with roughly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/drift-protocol-hack-2026-what-happened-who-lost-money-and-whats-next\/\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">$285 million taken<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\"> from Drift Protocol in early April.<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- --> <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">As the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/cryptoquant-kelpdao-hack-contagion-triggers-worst-defi-liquidity-crunch-since-2024\/\"><span style=\"font-weight:400\">KelpDAO fallout continues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight:400\">, the exploitation of frozen asset pools with unrelated legal claims introduces a new and troubling dimension to the hack recovery problem, one that will play out in courtrooms, not just on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bitcoin.com\/get-started\/what-is-a-blockchain\/\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blockchain<\/a>. Whether the frozen $71 million ultimately reaches actual KelpDAO victims or gets diverted through the courts remains unresolved.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/zachxbt-law-firm-lazarus-group-frozen-funds\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways: ZachXBT named Gerstein Harrow LLP for filing fake DPRK claims to seize $71M in frozen KelpDAO funds. Lazarus Group has stolen over $6 billion since 2017 and caused 76% of all 2026 crypto hack losses. ZachXBT has proposed a community DAO to counter the firm legally, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3947362404,"featured_media":71952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3947362404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}