North Koreans Posing as American Tech Workers to Fund Weapons Program: US Government

North Koreans Posing as American Tech Workers to Fund Weapons

In a shocking revelation, the US government has uncovered a scheme involving North Korean technology workers posing as Americans to secure remote work contracts with hundreds of US companies. The purpose of this elaborate ruse was to help fund Pyongyang’s illicit nuclear weapons and missile programs.

According to the State Department, for three years, starting in October 2020, a US national named Christina Chapman of Arizona assisted three North Korean IT workers in obtaining “illicit telework employment” using the identities of US citizens, resulting in earnings of approximately $6.8 million. More than 300 US companies were defrauded in this effort, as confirmed by the Justice Department.

The charges describe a long-term campaign by the North Korean government to infiltrate US job markets through fraud in order to raise revenue for its illicit nuclear program. The North Korean workers also attempted to gain employment with, and gather information from, two US government agencies, which were not named in the reports.

Chapman not only helped steal US identities but also operated a “laptop farm,” using computers issued by US companies on behalf of the North Korean workers from her home to create the illusion that they were based in the US. She allegedly facilitated the laundering of proceeds through her own financial accounts, resulting in US companies filing false documentation with the Department of Homeland Security and false reports with the Internal Revenue Service.

In a separate development, Oleksandr Didenko of Kyiv, Ukraine, was charged with creating accounts using false identities at US-based freelance IT job search platforms and money service companies. He ran a platform that allowed remote IT workers to use identities other than their own on various platforms.

This revelation adds to the list of illicit tactics employed by North Korea to fund its weapons programs, including cyberattacks, online crimes, and fake job offers to extract sensitive information from US employees. The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of efforts to fund North Korea’s weapons program.

This discovery comes in the wake of North Korean hackers targeting American companies for ransomware attacks and cryptocurrency thefts. In fact, suspected North Korean hackers allegedly stole over $1 billion in cryptocurrency last year, as reported by Chainalysis Inc., a blockchain analysis company.

The news highlights the lengths to which North Korea will go to finance its weapons programs and the need for vigilance against such deceptive practices.