Tennessee man indicted in North Korean remote jobs scam The Justice Department says the North Koreans are posing as US citizens. The US man arrested in the case faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The Nashville, Tennessee resident was arrested by the FBI and charged with his efforts to fund North Korea's weapons program by helping that country's workers become US citizens and obtain remote jobs with US and British technology companies. Said.
Matthew Isaac Knott, 38, helped North Koreans pose as US citizens using stolen identities, hosted company laptops at his residences, downloaded and installed software without permission and helped launder payments for remote information technology work, including through accounts linked to North Korea. Korean and Chinese actors.
“North Korea has unwittingly sent thousands of highly skilled information technology workers around the world to defraud businesses and evade international sanctions so it can continue to fund its dangerous weapons program,” said Henry C. Leventis said.
Fraudulent North Korean IT worker schemes involve the clever and unwitting use of pseudonymous email, social media, payment platform and online job site accounts, as well as false websites, proxy computers and third parties located in the US and elsewhere, Justice said. Branch.
recent News The investigation found that fake applicants were flooding job boards with doctored CVs, suggesting that many of the bogus applicants were North Korean nationals trying to infiltrate crypto projects for nefarious purposes.
According to the UN Security Council, more than 4,000 North Koreans have been ordered to hide their identities and enter jobs in the technology industry in the West. That includes the crypto industry.
Knoot's remote desktop applications allowed North Koreans to work from locations in China while appearing to victim companies to operate from Nashville.
For his participation in the scheme, Nat was paid a monthly fee by a foreign-based facilitator named Yang Di.
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Knott is charged with conspiracy to damage protected computers, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, willful damage to protected computers, identity theft and conspiracy to cause illegal employment of aliens.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of two years on the aggravated identity theft count.