The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday announced that five individuals have pleaded guilty to assisting North Korea’s illicit revenue generation schemes by enabling information technology (IT) worker fraud in violation of international sanctions.
The five individuals are listed below –
- Audricus Phagnasay, 24
- Jason Salazar, 30
- Alexander Paul Travis, 34
- Oleksandr Didenko, 28, and
- Erick Ntekereze Prince, 30
Phagnasay, Salazar, and Travis pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy for knowingly allowing IT workers located outside of the U.S. to use their U.S. identities between about September 2019 and November 2022 and secure jobs at American firms.
The three defendants also served as facilitators, hosting the company-issued laptops at their residences and installing remote desktop software on those machines without authorization so that the IT workers could connect to them and give the impression that they were working remotely within the U.S.
Furthermore, the trio is said to have aided the overseas IT workers in passing employer vetting procedures, with Salazar and Travis taking it to the next level by appearing for drug testing on behalf of them. Travis, then an active-duty member of the U.S. Army, received at least $51,397 for his role in the fraudulent scheme. Phagnasay and Salazar are said to have earned at least $3,450 and $4,500, respectively.
Didenko, whose arrest was disclosed by the DoJ back in May 2025, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for stealing the identities of U.S. citizens and selling them to IT workers so that they could land jobs at 40 U.S. companies. Didenko has also agreed to forfeit more than $1.4 million.
“Didenko ran a website using a U.S.-based domain, ‘Upworksell.com,’ designed to help overseas IT workers buy or rent stolen or borrowed identities,” the DoJ said. “Beginning in 2021, the IT workers used the identities to get hired on online freelance work platforms based in California and Pennsylvania.”
The Ukrainian national also paid individuals in the U.S. to receive and host laptops, turning their homes into laptop farms for the IT workers. One such laptop farm was operated by Christina Marie Chapman in Arizona. Didenko’s site has since been seized. Chapman was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison in July 2025.
Didenko is estimated to have managed as many as 871 proxy identities and facilitated the operation of at least three U.S.-based laptop farms. He also enabled his overseas clients to access Money Service Transmitters rather than having to physically open an account at a U.S. bank to transfer the employment income to foreign bank accounts.
Rounding off the list is Prince, who has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy for allegedly operating a company called Taggcar Inc. from approximately June 2020 through August 2024 to supply “certified” IT workers to U.S. companies and for running a laptop at his home in Florida. Prince earned more…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
