Two Americans, Kejia 'Tony' Wang and Zhenxing 'Danny' Wang, have been sentenced to a combined 200 months in prison for orchestrating a North Korean IT worker fraud scheme. Between 2021 and 2024, they helped North Koreans fraudulently secure tech jobs at over 100 US companies, including Fortune 500 firms and a defense contractor, generating $5 million for the North Korean regime. The scheme involved stealing identities of at least 80 US citizens, operating laptop farms to mask overseas workers' locations, and setting up shell companies to funnel payments. One defense contractor discovered a North Korean worker had accessed sensitive ITAR-controlled data and source code. US companies suffered an additional $3 million in losses from legal and remediation costs. Eight co-conspirators remain at large.
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