Overview
- Three U.S. nationals—Audricus Phagnasay, Jason Salazar, and Alexander Paul Travis—pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy for enabling North Korean operatives to obtain U.S. jobs.
- Erick Ntekereze Prince, who ran Taggcar, pleaded guilty for providing purported IT staff he knew were overseas and for hosting company-issued laptops, earning more than $89,000.
- Ukrainian national Oleksandr Didenko admitted to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, supplying stolen U.S. identities that helped secure roles at more than 40 companies and agreeing to forfeit $1.4 million.
- Facilitators used real, false, or stolen identities and set up remote-access "laptop farms," even assisting with employer vetting such as drug tests, affecting 136 U.S. companies and generating about $2.2 million for the regime as firms paid roughly $1.28 million in salaries.
- The Justice Department seized more than $15 million in cryptocurrency linked to four 2023 heists attributed to APT38, with the FBI urging businesses to strengthen vetting of remote hires.