Announces Nationwide Actions, Combat Illicit North Korean, Share Facebook — Justice Department Announces Nationwide Actions to Combat Illicit North Korean Government Revenue Generation | United States Justice Department.
District Court for the District of Columbia, Ukrainian national Oleksandr Didenko pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft in connection with a years-long scheme that stole the identities of U.S. nationals Audricus Phagnasay, 24, Jason Salazar, 30, and Alexander Paul Travis, 34, each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy. From approximately September 2019 through November 2022, Phagnasay, Salazar, and Travis provided their U.S. national Erick Ntekereze Prince, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy. Nationals and Ukrainian Identity Broker Plead GuiltyDepartment
Seeks Forfeiture of More Than $15M in Virtual Currency Stolen and Laundered by North Korean Hackers The Justice Department today announced five guilty pleas and more than $15 million in civil forfeiture actions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remote information technology (IT) work and virtual currency heist schemes. As part of his plea, Didenko agreed to forfeit more than $1.4 million, which includes more than $570,000 in fiat and virtual currency seized from Didenko and his co-conspirators.“North Korea is focused on victimizing and perpetrating fraud on American citizens, companies, and
banks by stealing the identity of U.S. The DPRK government uses both types of schemes to fund its weapons and other priorities in violation of sanctions.First, as described in court documents associated with the guilty pleas, facilitators in the United States and Ukraine assisted North Korean actors with obtaining remote IT employment with U.S. national Emanuel Ashtor, and a Mexican national Pedro Ernesto Alonso de los Reyes were charged in January 2025 by indictment alleging their participation in a criminal scheme that obtained work for North Korean IT workers from more than 64 U.S. In total, these