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U.S. Indicts Five for $866,000 North Korea IT Scheme Involving 64 Companies and Chinese Bank

Jan 24, 2025, 09:17 AM

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted five individuals involved in a fraudulent scheme to generate revenue for North Korea by securing remote IT work with American companies. The indicted include North Korean nationals Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song, Mexican national Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes, and U.S. nationals Erick Ntekereze Prince and Emanuel Ashtor. From April 2018 through August 2024, the group allegedly obtained employment from at least 64 U.S. companies, generating over $866,000 in revenue, which was largely laundered through a Chinese bank account. The scheme involved the use of forged and stolen identity documents, including U.S. passports, to conceal the true identities of the North Korean participants. Ntekereze and Ashtor facilitated the deception by hosting a 'laptop farm' in North Carolina, where they installed unauthorized remote access software on company-provided laptops. Alonso was arrested in the Netherlands, while Ntekereze and Ashtor were arrested in the U.S.