Mass. US Attorney charges 9 with generating more than $5 million for North Korean weapons program

Boston Globe

2 days ago

Zhenxing 'Danny' Wang, of Brunswick, N.J. was arrested Monday. He is facing four conspiracy charges for mail and wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and causing damage to a protected computer.
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Wang's court hearing in Boston has not yet been scheduled.
'The object of the conspiracies were to gain unauthorized access and cause damage to protected US company computers and computer networks,' the 49-page indictment said.
The scheme involved unnamed co-conspirators in New Jersey, New York, California, and overseas, charging documents said.
After the defendants got hired for remote jobs and obtained company laptops, they would ship them to Wang, the indictment said.
Wang would install remote desktop software on the laptops so that it would appear as though the defendants were performing their work from within the US, prosecutors alleged.
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According to Foley's statement, 'in response to US and UN sanctions, the DPRK government has dispatched thousands of skilled IT workers around the world.'
'The threat posed by DPRK operatives is both real and immediate,' Foley's statement said. 'Thousands of North Korean cyber operatives have been trained and deployed by the regime to blend into the global digital workforce and systematically target U.S. companies.'
One of the companies the defendants targeted was a California-based defense contractor. According to the indictment, the defendants stole sensitive documents, source code, and computer files related to US military technology.
Some of the information stolen from the contractor included International Traffic in Arms Regulations data, Foley's statement said.
'These schemes target and steal from U.S. companies and are designed to evade sanctions and fund the North Korean regime's illicit programs, including its weapons programs,' John A. Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's national security division, said in the statement.
The investigation spanned from San Diego to Las Vegas, to New York, to Boston.
Investigators searched seven so-called 'laptop farms' at locations in New York, New Jersey and California and recovered more than 70 devices, Foley's statement said.
They also seized 21 fraudulent web domains and 29 financial accounts, holding tens of thousands of dollars in funds, 'used to launder revenue for the North Korean regime through remote IT work,' according to Foley's statement.
John E. Helsing, of the Department of Defense, said in the statement that 'these indictments should act as a deterrent for individuals and foreign entities attempting to illegally export critical defense information.'
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Along with Wang, the indictment named six Chinese nationals, including two who live in the United Arab Emirates, and two Taiwanese nationals.
In Georgia on Monday, an unsealed indictment charged four North Korean nationals with a scheme to steal more than $750,000 in virtual currency and launder it overseas, Foley said in her statement.
'Unlike traditional North Korean IT workers, who usually seek employment with the goal of remitting their salaries back to North Korea, the defendants charged by the Northern District of Georgia allegedly sought employment with virtual currency-related businesses to earn the trust of those businesses and then stole those businesses' virtual assets,' Foley's statement said.
The two cases are part of the
The initiative is designed to disrupt North Korea's 'illicit revenue generation efforts through remote IT workers, and the U.S.-based individuals who enable them,' prosecutors said.
Tonya Alanez can be reached at