The Department of Justice announced Thursday that three people have been arrested in connection with a complex identity theft scheme. Officials claim that the program brings huge profits to the North Korean government, including its weapons program.
The scheme involved thousands of North Korean information technology workers, who prosecutors say were sent by the government to live abroad and used stolen identities of Americans. They say they have secured remote employment at U.S.-based Fortune 500 companies, jobs that give them access to sensitive companies. Data and high salaries.
The scam is a way for North Korea, which is cut off from the U.S. financial system and under strict sanctions, to exploit a combination of overlapping factors, including a lack of high-tech labor in the U.S. and the prevalence of remote telework. Marshall Miller, the Justice Department’s principal deputy attorney general, said in an interview.
The Justice Department said the case is part of a broader strategy to not only prosecute the individuals who perpetrated the fraud, but also to warn private companies that they need to be cautious about the talent they employ and build partnerships with other countries. It states that. FBI and Justice Department officials began the effort in March and announced last year that they would seize website domains used by North Korean IT officials.
“Increasingly, the compliance programs of American businesses and organizations are at the forefront of protecting national security.” “Corporate compliance and national security are more intertwined than ever before.”
The Justice Department said the conspiracy affected more than 300 companies, including high-end retail chains and “top Silicon Valley technology companies,” and generated more than $6.8 million in income for workers based outside the United States. ing. in China and Russia.
The three people arrested include Christina Marie Chapman, an Arizona woman who prosecutors say helped employees obtain and verify stolen IDs and pass them on to legitimate employees. to a company that claims to have facilitated the scheme by receiving laptops from a U.S. company that thought it was sending the devices and helping employees connect remotely.
According to the indictment, Chapman operated multiple “laptop farms” where U.S. companies sent computers and paychecks to IT workers who were unaware they were located overseas.
Chapman’s laptop farm allegedly connected overseas IT employees who logged in remotely to the company’s network, making the logins appear to be coming from the United States. She is also said to have been collecting salaries of overseas IT employees at her home, forging beneficiary signatures for overseas transfers, and charging monthly fees to line her own pockets.
The other two defendants include Oleksandr Didenko, a Ukrainian man who prosecutors say created a fake account on a job search platform and was arrested in Poland last week; They include Minh Phuong Vuong, a Vietnamese national, who was arrested on suspicion. The work at the US company was actually done by a remote worker based overseas posing as him.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the three had lawyers.
Separately, the State Department announced it would offer a reward for information about some North Korean IT workers who officials say were assisted by Chapman.
The FBI, which conducted the investigation, issued a public service announcement warning companies about the scheme, encouraging them to implement identity verification standards throughout the hiring process and educating human resources and hiring managers about the threat.
