The nationwide operation also resulted in the seizure of financial accounts, websites and laptops.
The Justice Department announced criminal charges Monday in connection with a scheme by North Korea to fund its weapons program through the salaries of remote information technology workers employed unwittingly by U.S. companies.
The charges are part of what law enforcement officials described as a nationwide operation that also resulted in the seizure of financial accounts, websites and laptops that were used to carry out the fraud.
Two separate cases — one filed in Georgia, the other in Massachusetts — represent the latest Justice Department effort to confront a persistent threat that officials say generates enormous revenue for the North Korean government and in some cases affords workers access to sensitive and proprietary data from the corporations that hire them.
The scheme involves thousands of workers who, armed with stolen or fake identifies of U.S. citizens, are dispatched by the North Korean government to find work as remote IT employees at American companies, including Fortune 500 corporations.
