North Korean workers infiltrated US companies in major fraud scheme

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has confirmed that the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea infiltrated over 100 U.S. companies in a major fraud scheme to fund the North Korean government by having remote information technology workers employed in Fortune 500 and other U.S. companies.

Last Monday, the Justice Department issued a press release announcing “coordinated actions against the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) government’s schemes to fund its regime through remote information technology (IT) work for U.S. companies.”

The Justice Department noted that the coordinated actions included an arrest, two indictments, an information and related plea agreement, searches of 29 “laptop farms” in 16 states, and the seizure of 21 fraudulent websites and 29 financial accounts used to launder illegal funds.

“According to court documents, the schemes involve North Korean individuals fraudulently obtaining employment with U.S. companies as remote IT workers, using stolen and fake identities,” the Justice Department stated. “The North Korean actors were assisted by individuals in the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan, and successfully obtained employment with more than 100 U.S. companies.”

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According to the Justice Department, U.S.-based individuals contributed to one of the schemes by establishing fraudulent websites and front companies to “promote the bona fides of the remote IT workers and hosted laptop farms” that allowed North Korean workers to remotely access laptop computers in the United States. The North Korean workers were then provided with salary payments and given access to “sensitive employer information,” including U.S. military technology and virtual currency.

The Justice Department said that North Korean workers also used false identities to gain access to and steal over $900,000 in virtual currency from a blockchain research and development company in Atlanta, Georgia.

“These schemes target and steal from U.S. companies and are designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regime’s illicit programs, including its weapons programs,” Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Counterintelligence Division Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky warned that while North Korea continues to try to fund its weapons programs by “defrauding U.S. companies and exploiting American victims of identity theft” to “funnel hundreds of millions of dollars” the North Korean government, the FBI is “equally intent on disrupting this massive campaign and bringing its perpetrators to justice.”