- U.S. prosecutors have charged four North Koreans accused of posing as remote developers and stealing almost $1 million in cryptocurrency
- The defendants allegedly laundered the money through mixers and exchange accounts opened with fraudulent Malaysian IDs
- A federal grand jury has indicted them under the Justice Departments DPRK RevGen crackdown on North Korean revenue-raising cybercrime
Four North Korean nationals have been accused of infiltrating tech firms by masquerading as freelance developers , siphoning digital assets worth almost $1 million and washing the proceeds through layered crypto transfers. The five-count indictment, unsealed in Atlanta, alleges the plot helped bankroll Pyongyangs sanctions-evading programs. Prosecutors say the case marks another milestone in the Justice Departments two-year-old initiative to choke off North Koreas cyber cash streams.
Stolen Identities Used in Fraud
Federal prosecutors revealed Monday that the four North KoreansKim Kwang Jin, Kang Tae Bok, Jong Pong Ju, and Chang Nam IIwere indicted on June 24 for wire fraud and money laundering. Working from abroad, the quartet allegedly used stolen or fabricated identities to secure remote jobs with a blockchain start-up in Atlanta and a Serbian token firm, positions they would not have obtained had it [been] known the defendants were North Korean citizens, the indictment states.
Once embedded, Jong is said to have diverted about $175,000 in February 2022, while Kim allegedly rewrote two smart contracts the following month to siphon roughly $740,000. Prosecutors contend that the group traveled together to the United Arab Emirates in 2019 and later worked as a coordinated team, sharing leads and recommending one another to employers as they built their cover.
Laundering the Loot
The stolen tokens were allegedly funneled through a mixing service before landing in exchange accounts controlled by Kang and Chang but registered under aliases. The defendants used fake and stolen personal identities to conceal their North Korean nationality&and exploit their victims trust, U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said.
Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg added that the scheme was designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regimes illicit programs, including its weapons programs, while FBI Atlantas Paul Brown warned that nation-state cybercrime remains a persistent business threat.
The case is part of the Justice Departments DPRK RevGen: Domestic Enabler Initiative, which launched in March 2024 to target North Koreas income-generation networks and their U.S. facilitators.
