DOJ Charges 5 People for Defrauding Companies, Raising Funds for North Korea
DOJ unsealed charges on May 16 against five people, including "three unidentified foreign nationals," who allegedly took part in schemes to plant information technology workers in positions at U.S. companies and "raise revenue for North Korea."
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Kevin Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division, said that what the "allegations truly represent is a new high-tech campaign to evade U.S. sanctions, victimize U.S. businesses, and steal U.S. identities."
The people defrauded over 300 U.S. companies using "U.S. payment platforms and online job site accounts, proxy computers located in the United States, and witting and unwitting U.S. persons and entities." As part of the charges, DOJ unsealed seizures and other legal actions to disrupt the schemes.
Two of the "prosecutions" were brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, which led to the arrest of two defendants and related seizures. One case was filed against Litchfield Park, Arizona, resident Marie Chapman for her role in assisting overseas IT workers posing as U.S. citizens. Chapman and her co-conspirators allegedly defrauded "multiple well-known Fortune 500 companies, U.S. banks, and other financial service providers."
The Chapman indictment also charged three foreign nationals with money laundering. As part of the case, DOJ seized wages earned by over 19 of the overseas IT workers and "will seek forfeiture of the same."
A separate criminal complaint was unsealed May 16 in D.C. against Oleksandr Didenko of Kyiv for a scheme to create fake accounts on IT job search platforms and with money service transmitters. Didenko sold the accounts to overseas laborers, "whom he believed were North Korean," leading the workers to use false identities to apply for the jobs, DOJ said. Didenko used the identities of actual U.S. individuals, the department alleged.