Fourteen North Korean nationals have been indicted in a scheme using information technology workers with false identities to contract with U.S. companies — workers who then funneled their wages to North Korea for development of ballistic missiles and other weapons, the head of the FBI office in St. Louis said Thursday.
The scheme involving thousands of IT workers generated more than $88 million for the North Korean government, Ashley T. Johnson, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office, said at a news conference. In addition to their wages, the workers stole sensitive information from companies or threatened to leak information in exchange for extortion payments, Johnson said.
