North Korean IT workers are stealing remote jobs and raking in billions—and Americans are helping them do it

This month, a federal judge in Massachusetts sentenced Kejia “Tony” Wang, a 42-year-old husband and father from New Jersey, to nine years in prison for spearheading what prosecutors described as an international fraud operation that placed North Korean IT workers in tech jobs at more than 100 American companies—including Fortune 500 firms. Over the course of three years, Wang’s network stole the identities of more than 80 Americans, forged fake social security cards and California driver’s licenses with photos of the North Korean operatives, filed false employment forms with the Department of Homeland Security, and doctored tax documents that went to the IRS and Social Security Administration. The scheme, in which the North Koreans got hired using Americans’ stolen identities, generated more than $5 million in salary payments from the victim companies. The subsequent fallout once it was uncovered caused at least $3 million in legal fees and computer clean-up costs at businesses in 28 states and the District of Columbia, court records show . Another participant in the scheme, Zhenxing Wang, 39—no relation to Kejia Wang, but a friend since both men arrived from China nearly 20 years ago—was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison. The court ordered both to forfeit $600,000, collectively, that they were paid from their part in the fraud. The Wang prison terms bring the number of Americans convicted for aiding North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s government to at least seven since last year. The group includes a former active-duty U.S. Army soldier , an Arizona woman , a nail technician from Maryland , and two men from California. All earned thousands of dollars for helping North Koreans collect millions in salary for doing remote IT jobs. The wave of sentencing began in 2025 with a guilty plea by Christina Chapman, a 51-year-old woman who cared for 90 laptops in her home while helping her North Korean handlers get jobs at 309 companies, raking in $17.1 million. The sal…