By JIM SALTER
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Fourteen North Korean nationals have been indicted in a scheme utilizing data know-how employees with false identities to contract with U.S. corporations — employees who then funneled their wages to North Korea for growth of ballistic missiles and different weapons, the pinnacle of the FBI workplace in St. Louis mentioned Thursday.
Victims included defrauded corporations and folks whose identities had been stolen from throughout the U.S., together with Missouri, Johnson mentioned. The indictments had been filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court docket in St. Louis. All 14 individuals face wire fraud, cash laundering, id theft and different fees.
Most of these accused are believed to be in North Korea. Johnson acknowledged that bringing them to justice might be troublesome. To assist, the U.S. Division of State is providing a $5 million reward for data resulting in any of the suspects.
Federal authorities mentioned the scheme labored like this:
North Korea dispatched hundreds of IT employees to get employed and work remotely or as freelancers for U.S. corporations. The IT employees concerned within the scheme typically used stolen identities. In different situations, they paid Individuals to make use of their residence Wi-Fi connections, or to pose in on-camera job interviews because the IT employees. Johnson mentioned the FBI goes after these “domestic enablers,” too.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Johnson mentioned. “If your company has hired fully remote IT workers, more likely than not, you have hired or at least interviewed a North Korean national working on behalf of the North Korean government,” Johnson mentioned.
The Justice Division in recent times has sought to reveal and disrupt a broad number of prison schemes aimed toward bolstering the North Korean regime, together with its nuclear weapons program.
In 2021, the Justice Division charged three North Korean pc programmers and members of the federal government’s army intelligence company in a broad vary of world hacks that officers say had been carried out on the behest of the regime. Regulation enforcement officers mentioned on the time that the prosecution highlighted the profit-driven motive behind North Korea’s prison hacking, a distinction from different adversarial nations like Russia, China and Iran which might be typically extra interested by espionage, mental property theft and even disrupting democracy.
In Might 2022, the State Division, Division of the Treasury, and the FBI issued an advisory warning of makes an attempt by North Koreans “to obtain employment while posing as non-North Korean nationals.” The advisory famous that in recent times, the regime of Kim Jong Un “has placed increased focus on education and training” in IT-related topics.
In October 2023, the FBI in St. Louis introduced the seizure of $1.5 million and 17 domains as a part of the investigation. The indictments introduced Tuesday had been the primary stemming from the investigation.
Johnson urged corporations to totally vet IT employees employed to work remotely. “One of the ways to help minimize your risk is to insist current and future IT workers appear on camera as often as possible if they are fully remote,” she mentioned.
Officers didn’t identify the businesses that unknowingly employed North Korean employees.
