KelpDAO victims' lawyers reframe hack as fraud to seize funds

Lawyers for the victims of the KelpDAO hack are shifting their legal strategy to seize $71 million in frozen ETH, CoinDesk reported. In a court filing, they argued the incident was not a simple theft but a loan based on collateral fraud, asserting that assets obtained fraudulently can still be legally owned. The lawyers explained that the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group allegedly secured a loan of real ETH using worthless rsETH as collateral. They emphasized that under the U.S. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), assets linked to North Korea can be seized. Previously, Aave had requested the freeze be lifted, arguing that temporary possession of stolen assets does not confer ownership and that the funds belong to the victims, not the perpetrators.