North Korea engaged in a “multi-year scheme” to evade global financial sanctions and funnel $2.5 billion from abroad into the country, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a new criminal indictment unsealed on Thursday.

The allegations state that 33 individuals — five Chinese nationals and 28 North Koreans — engaged in a sprawling plot across a half-dozen countries to open covert branches of a major North Korean bank, illegally access potentially billions of dollars in hard currency, and siphon the funds back to the DPRK.

The alleged transactions took place over much of the last decade, including as