Fake IT specialists smuggled in from North Korea: US woman jailed

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Security authorities in both Europe and the USA have been warning for some time that IT specialists from North Korea are sneaking into Western companies under false identities as remote employees in order to generate income for the North Korean government with their salaries. They have helpers in the regions of the companies concerned who, for example, enable them to accept salary payments outside North Korea and operate a work laptop so that they are not exposed. One such helper from the US state of Arizona has now been given a long prison sentence.

The 50-year-old was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in a US district court on Thursday for her involvement in a massive fraud that provided North Korean IT specialists with remote jobs in more than 300 US companies. According to the US Department of Justice, the North Koreans posed as residents and citizens of the USA. The woman primarily served as an interface between the defrauded companies and the North Koreans. She operated the work laptops of the fake employees on site and received salary payments, which she then forwarded to North Korea. In total, the scam is said to have generated illegal income of more than 17 million US dollars for the convicted person and the North Korean government.

One of the biggest cases in the USA

According to the ministry, the woman pleaded guilty in February to telecommunications fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. In addition to the 102-month prison sentence, the court sentenced her to three years' probation, the forfeiture of 284.555,92 US dollars, which she intended to forward to North Korea, and the payment of a fine of 176.850 US dollars.

The Ministry speaks of one of the largest cases of fraud of this kind ever prosecuted by the authority. In the course of the fraud, 68 identities of victims in the United States were allegedly stolen and 309 US companies and two international companies were defrauded.

Stolen identities of US citizens

According to the US court, North Korea deployed thousands of highly skilled IT professionals worldwide to obtain employment in North Korean foreign countries using false, stolen or borrowed identities of US citizens. Accomplices like the 50-year-old woman are said to help circumvent employer controls designed to prevent such illegal employment relationships.

The woman is also said to have helped the North Koreans to find jobs in the USA. The companies involved included a leading television station, a Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace company, an American car manufacturer, a luxury retail store and a US media company. Fortune 500 companies were also among them. According to the ministry, the IT workers specifically selected the companies they wanted to apply to beforehand.

Investigators find laptop farm

In the house of the convicted woman, investigators found an entire laptop farm with the computers that the defrauded companies had sent to the supposed addresses of their new employees. Notes on the 90 laptops found helped the 50-year-old to keep track of which US company and identity each device belonged to. The location of the computers in the USA allowed the North Koreans to pretend that they were working from there. Her assistant also sent 49 laptops and other devices from US companies to locations abroad. Several shipments also went to a city in China on the border with North Korea.

Much of the proceeds were reported to tax and social security authorities under the names of real US citizens. The identities used were stolen or misused. In addition, the 50-year-old received paychecks in the names of the stolen identities and had the salaries paid directly by US companies into her own accounts. She then transferred the money abroad.

North Korean IT specialists have long had Germany in their sights: last fall, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution warned German companies about North Korean agents posing as IT freelancers .

(nen)