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 clea...