Five plead guilty to helping North Koreans defraud US companies by posing as remote IT workers: DOJ

The Justice Department on Friday said five people have pleaded guilty to helping North Koreans infiltrate American tech companies by posing as remote information technology (IT) workers.

The five people in the United States and Ukraine operated as “facilitators” who helped North Koreans get jobs with U.S. tech companies by providing their own real identities, or false and stolen identities of more than a dozen U.S. nationals. The people also kept company-provided laptops in their homes in the U.S. to make it look like the North Korean workers lived domestically.

Three of the people pleaded guilty in Georgia, one person pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C., and the last was in Florida.

“These guilty pleas send a clear message: No matter who or where you are, if you support North Korea's efforts to victimize U.S. businesses and citizens, the FBI will find you and bring you to justice," Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, said in a statement. "We ask all our private sector partners to improve their security process for vetting remote workers and to remain vigilant regarding this emerging threat.”

The fraudulent schemes impacted a total of 136 U.S. companies, generated more than $2.2 million in revenue for North Korea's regime, and compromised the identities of more than 18 Americans. 

Although the most recent scheme only generated $2.2 million, U.S. intelligence community officials warned in 2022 that North Korean IT schemes could generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year. 

The Justice Department also said that it froze more than $15 million in virtual currency that was stolen by a North Korean military hacking group. The group carried out multimillion-dollar virtual currency heists at four overseas currency platforms in 2023. 

The North Korean government uses both schemes to fund its weapons and other items in violation of sanctions.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.