N Korea made millions from remote work scheme, US says

According to reports from the United States, North Korea has been generating significant revenue through a remote work scheme that allegedly involves its IT workers using false identities to secure jobs with American companies. A federal court in St. Louis has indicted 14 North Koreans for their involvement in a long-standing conspiracy aimed at extorting money from US firms and channeling those funds back to North Korea's weapons programs. The broader scheme reportedly includes thousands of North Korean IT workers who have been using fake, stolen, and borrowed identities from individuals in the US and other nations to gain employment with American companies. The indictment claims that these individuals, along with others associated with them, managed to generate at least 88 million dollars over a six-year period for the North Korean regime. The North Korean mission to the United Nations has not yet responded to requests for comments regarding these allegations. Prosecutors have indicated that the suspects were employed by two companies controlled by North Korea, namely Yanbian Silverstar, which is based in China, and Volasys Silverstar, which is based in Russia. The US Department of Justice has reported that there are around 130 North Korean IT workers who are internally referred to as 'IT Warriors' by these companies. The indictment states that the suspects were instructed to seek salaries of 10,000 dollars a month from their employers in the US. In addition to their monthly wages, they were also tasked with raising funds for the North Korean regime by stealing valuable information from the companies and threatening to leak it unless the companies made extortion payments. The group now faces serious charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. To evade detection, the suspects allegedly used stolen identities and paid individuals residing in the US to receive, set up, and host laptops provided by the American companies. They would then instruct these US residents to install remote access software, allowing them to appear as if they were working from the US while they were actually located overseas. Investigators believe that the suspects are currently in North Korea, making it unlikely that they will ever face justice for their actions. Nevertheless, the US State Department has announced a reward of up to 5 million dollars for anyone who can provide additional information about the suspects as well as the companies Yanbian and Volasys. US officials have not disclosed the names of the American companies that were targeted in this scheme. Ashley T. Johnson, the special agent in charge of the FBI's field office in St. Louis, stated, 'While we have disrupted this group and identified its leadership, this is just the tip of the iceberg. ' She emphasized that the North Korean government has trained and deployed thousands of IT workers to carry out similar schemes against US companies on a daily basis.