Americans sentenced for running 'laptop farms' for North Korea

Key Points:

• Two U.S. nationals, Matthew Isaac Knoot and Erick Ntekereze Prince, were sentenced to 18 months in prison for operating "laptop farms" that enabled North Korean IT workers to fraudulently obtain remote jobs at nearly 70 American companies.
• Knoot managed a scheme from his Nashville home where he used stolen identities to receive company laptops and installed unauthorized software allowing North Korean workers to appear as legitimate U.S. employees, resulting in over $250,000 in fraudulent payments.
• Prince, through his company Taggcar Inc., facilitated remote employment for North Korean IT workers from 2020 to 2024, with victim companies paying more than $943,000 in salaries, most of which was sent overseas.
• Their actions caused significant financial harm, including over $500,000 in remediation costs for Knoot and more than $1 million for Prince; both were ordered to pay restitution and forfeit assets in addition to their prison sentences.
• These cases are part of a federal crackdown on North Korea's illicit revenue schemes, with the FBI warning since 2023 about North Korean IT workers using identity theft to infiltrate U.S. companies, and similar prosecutions of U.S. nationals aiding this activity.