U.S. offers $5 million reward for info in North Korean IT employee scheme

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The State Department is offering $5 million for information on 14 North Korean nationals indicted Thursday in a scheme using IT workers with false identities to work for U.S. companies.

The workers, who were hired as remote employees in the United States, sent their wages to North Korea, according to the head of the FBI office in St. Louis, Ashley Johnson.

The scheme, which officials said involved at least 130 people, generated $88 million for the North Korean government, according to the indictment.

Their actions helped to support North Korea's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. officials said.

"The defendants also enlisted U.S. persons to purchase laptops or receive laptops from U.S. employers and install remote access programs on them," the indictment said. "When the defendants gained access to a U.S. employer's sensitive business information, the defendants in some instances extorted payments from the employer by threatening to release, and in some cases releasing, that sensitive information online."

The conspiracy lasted for at least six years, the indictment added. The men would send their wages to the North Korean government.

"To prop up its brutal regime, the North Korean government directs IT workers to gain employment through fraud, steal sensitive information from U.S. companies, and siphon money back to the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Thursday. "This indictment of 14 North Korean nationals exposes their alleged sanctions evasion and should serve as a warning to companies around the globe -- be on alert for this malicious activity by the DPRK regime."

Documents show that the men would steal, borrow or pay to use the identities of people in the United States to be employed as remote IT workers for U.S. companies. Johnson said the arrests show there are more people fraudulently employed doing the same kind of thing.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. 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 continued.

Johnson said exposing the scheme raises the awareness of U.S. companies who hire remote IT workers, but admitted that the men indicted in this scheme probably would never see the inside of a U.S. courtroom. She added that the exposure could also dissuade other North Korean nationals from attempting to participate in a similar practice.

The FBI's St. Louis' office announced in October that it had seized Internet domains and interrupted funding streams between North Korean nationals using assumed identities and working in the United States.