A resident of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested by the FBI and charged for his efforts in generating funds for North Korea’s weapons program by helping workers from that country pose as US citizens and obtain remote jobs with US and British technology companies, the Justice Department said.
Matthew Isaac Knoot, 38, assisted North Koreans in using stolen identities to pose as US citizens, hosted company laptops at his residences, downloaded and installed software without authorisation, and helped launder payments for the remote information technology work, including to accounts tied to North Korean and Chinese actors.
“North Korea has dispatched thousands of highly skilled information technology workers around the world to dupe unwitting businesses and evade international sanctions so that it can continue to fund its dangerous weapons program,” said US Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Fraudulent North Korean IT worker schemes involve the use of pseudonymous email, social media, payment platform and online job site accounts, as well as false websites, proxy computers, and witting and unwitting third parties located in the US and elsewhere, according to the Justice Department.
A recent DL News investigation found that fake applicants were flooding job boards with doctored CVs, with evidence suggesting many of the bogus applicants were North Korean nationals trying to infiltrate crypto projects for nefarious purposes.
More than 4,000 North Koreans have been directed to worm their way into jobs in the technology industry in the West by concealing their identities, according to the UN Security Council. That includes the crypto industry.
Knoot’s remote desktop applications enabled the North Koreans to work from locations in China, while appearing to the victim companies to be working from Nashville.
For his participation in the scheme, Knoot was paid a monthly fee by a foreign-based facilitator who went by the name Yang Di.
Knoot is charged with conspiracy to cause damage to protected computers, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to protected computers, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to cause the unlawful employment of aliens.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, including a mandatory minimum of two years on the aggravated identity theft count.