The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday, April 15, that two Chinese-American men from New Jersey have been sentenced to 108 months (9 years) and 92 months (approximately 7.5 years) in prison for their involvement in aiding the North Korean government in a large-scale remote IT labor fraud scheme.
The fraudulent scheme involved the theft of identities of American citizens to infiltrate over a hundred American companies, raising over $5 million in illegal funds for North Korea’s large-scale weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
According to court documents, 42-year-old U.S. citizen Kejia Wang and 39-year-old Zhenxing Wang operated so-called “laptop farms” within the United States between 2021 and 2024. They, along with other co-conspirators, set up dozens of computers provided by victim companies in their residences, using hardware devices called “KVM switches” designed for remote operations to allow North Korean workers overseas to access these devices.
This deceit led prominent employers including Fortune 500 companies, semiconductor suppliers, and defense contractors to believe they were hiring legitimate domestic workers within the U.S.
In 2023, Kejia Wang visited Shenyang and Dandong in China twice to discuss the plan with North Korean personnel.
Apart from the lengthy prison terms, the court also ordered the two men to undergo three years of supervised release post-incarceration and seized $600,000 of their ill-gotten gains, with the government having recovered $400,000 of that sum.
Kejia Wang was also ordered by the court to pay $29,236.03 in restitution.
Leah B. Foley, a federal prosecutor from Massachusetts, stated: “This case exposed a complex conspiracy that used stolen American identities and businesses to funnel millions of dollars to a hostile foreign regime.”
She emphasized, “The defendants facilitated the infiltration of foreign actors into American companies through operating laptop farms, accessing sensitive data, ultimately endangering our economy and national security.”
Court documents reveal that from around 2021 to October 2024, the defendants and their co-conspirators established multiple shell companies, stole the identities of over 80 Americans, obtained remote positions in over 100 American companies, including several Fortune 500 companies. This action resulted in victim companies incurring at least $3 million in legal fees, computer network repair costs, and other losses.
Investigations indicate that this scheme posed a direct threat to national security. In early 2024, a North Korean co-conspirator remotely accessed a California defense contractor’s system, acquiring sensitive technology data protected by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Deputy Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, stated: “This scheme inserting North Korean IT labor into unwitting American companies, infiltrating U.S. computer systems, has compromised our national security.”
He stressed that authorities will continue to hold accountable those aiding North Korea’s illicit fundraising efforts.
This case involves a vast international network. Apart from the two convicted U.S. citizens, the Department of Justice also indicted eight additional defendants in 2025, including six individuals from China and two from Taiwan.
According to a statement provided by the Department of Justice, the Chinese defendants are Jing Bin Huang, Baoyu Zhou, Tong Yuze, Yongzhe Xu, Ziyou Yuan, and Zhenbang Zhou.
Two Taiwanese nationals, Mengting Liu and Enchia Liu, were also indicted for their alleged involvement in the money laundering and fraud network.
These eight defendants remain fugitives and are wanted by the FBI.
Michael Barnhart, a researcher at the cybersecurity firm DTEX, told CNN that North Korea’s criminal networks are increasingly relying on establishing shell companies in the U.S. to create an illusion of legitimate employment.
He warned that North Korean IT personnel have infiltrated subcontractors to “reach higher-value targets,” which have contracts with governments worldwide.