North Korea cheated American companies in the scheme of technological workers to finance the weapons program, says the Department of Justice

The Department of Justice announced criminal charges on Monday in a North Korean scheme to finance its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology workers without realizing it by US companies.

The charges arose from what the officials responsible for enforcing the law described as a national operation that also resulted in the seizure of financial accounts, websites and laptops that were used to carry out fraud.

The separate cases in Georgia and Massachusetts represent the last effort of the Department of Justice to face a persistent threat that, according to the officials, generates huge income for the North Korean government and, in some cases, offers workers access to sensitive and patented data of the US corporations that hire them.

The scheme involved thousands of workers who, armed with stolen or false identities, were sent by the North Korean government to find work as an employees of remote IT in US companies, including the corporations Fortune 500. The companies were deceived to believe that the workers who hired had their headquarters in the US They were transferred to accounts controlled by conspirators affiliated with North Korea, prosecutors say.

On Monday, American prosecutors announced the arrest of “Danny” Wang of New Jersey of the United States. Uu. An accusation of five positions describes a “Wang’s fraud scheme and its conspirators to obtain remote work of you with US companies that generated more than $ 5 million in income,” said the Department of Justice.

The accusation also charges six Chinese citizens and two Taiwanese nationals for their roles in the scheme.

“These schemes are directed and steal from US companies and are designed to evade sanctions and finance the illicit programs of the North Korean regime, including their weapons programs,” said the attached attorney general John Eisenberg, head of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.

In a case exposed on Monday in a federal court in Massachusetts, the Department of Justice said he had arrested a US National. And accused more than half a dozen Chinese and Taiwanese citizens for their alleged roles in an elaborate fraud that prosecutors say that it produced several million dollars in revenues and scores affected by companies.

The conspiracy, according to judicial documents, implied the registration of financial accounts to receive income and the creation of fake web companies and websites so that it seems that remote workers were associated with legitimate businesses. The enablers within the United States facilitated remote access to workers’ computers, deceiving companies to believe that workers were starting session in US locations.

The Department of Justice did not identify the companies that were deceived, but said that some of the fraudulent workers could obtain access and steal information related to confidential military technology.

The case presented in Georgia charges four North Korea workers for stealing virtual currency worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from their employers. The defendants remain in general.

The Department of Justice has presented similar processes in recent years, and created an initiative aimed at interrupting the threat.

The Department of Justice has accused other people living in the United States of similar conduct linked to the North Korean government.

Last December, a Chinese national who lives in California He was accused After he supposedly bought and exported weapons and ammunition to North Korea in the direction of North Korean agents who channeled $ 2 million to buy the equipment.

In May 2024, Federal Prosecutors accused A woman from Arizona to carry out a scheme to help Northern Korea workers obtain remote employment with US companies. The group allegedly used the identities of more than 60 people who lived in the US. To generate almost $ 7 million for the North Korean government of more than 300 US companies.

• Fraud
• United States Department of Justice
• North Korea