NJ man arrested in latest crackdown on North Korean IT scheme
A New Jersey man was one of nine people charged in the US government at the last attempt to unravel a large-scale North Korean financing program on Monday.
Zhenxing “Danny” Wang was arrested on Monday at his home in New Jersey and will be extradited to Boston to face charges before the Federal Massachusetts court, the Ministry of Justice said in a press release.
The other eight people charged on Monday include six Chinese nationals and two Taiwanese nationals, none of whom have been arrested.
The North Korean program implies that IT workers fly the identity of American citizens and pretended to be far-reaching workers in the United States while living in North Korea and sending their funds to the country’s government.
“These regimes target and steal American companies and are designed to escape sanctions and finance illegal programs from the North Korean regime, including its arms programs,” Deputy Prosecutor General John Eisenberg said on Monday.
The federal authorities first warned the companies of the North Korean operation in 2022 and announced many accusations in the following years. In 2023, the Ministry of Justice said there were probably thousands of fraudulent distant workers who earned money for North Korea.
Monday’s accusation act targeted a group that raised around $ 5 million, cost US $ 3 million and stole the identity of more than 80 American citizens, according to the Federal.
Wang was one of the six “American facilitators” who welcomed computers from American companies at their home to deceive companies believing that workers were in the United States, investigators said.
