❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged multiple individuals in a scheme where North Korea sent IT workers with fake identities to get remote jobs at U.S. companies. The wages were secretly funneled back to fund North Korea’s weapons program. Several Chinese and Taiwanese nationals were charged, and sensitive U.S. data may have been accessed.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: North Korean government, U.S. tech companies, DOJ.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Monday, June 30, 2025, United States, North Korea, and China.
💬KEY QUOTE: “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 Eisenberg
🎯IMPACT: This scheme poses a national security threat, involving financial fraud and corporate espionage risks.
On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal charges in a scheme by North Korea to fund its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology (IT) workers employed inadvertently by U.S. companies.
The nationwide operation led to charges and the seizure of financial accounts, websites, and laptops used to execute the fraud. Separate cases in Georgia and Massachusetts exposed that the scheme is generating extensive revenue for North Korea’s government and even supplying workers access to sensitive and proprietary data from the American corporations hiring them.
The North Korean government dispatched thousands of workers with fake or stolen identities to find remote work as IT employees at American companies. These companies believed the workers were hired based in the U.S., when they were actually stationed in North Korea or China. The wages were transferred into accounts controlled by co-conspirators affiliated with North Korea, prosecutors have said.
On Monday, U.S. prosecutors announced the arrest of U.S. national Zhenxing “Danny” Wang of New Jersey. A five-count indictment describes a multi-year fraud scheme by Wang and his co-conspirators to obtain remote IT work with U.S. companies that generated more than $5 million in revenue. The indictment additionally charges six Chinese nationals and two Taiwanese nationals for their roles in the scheme.
Court papers say the conspiracy involved registering financial accounts to receive the proceeds and creating shell companies and fake websites to portray these remote workers as associated with legitimate businesses. Enablers inside the United States facilitated the workers’ remote computer access, creating the illusion that workers were logged in from U.S. locations.
“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,” warned Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg.
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