Three people, including a soldier stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, a major hub for U.S. cyberoperations, were sentenced Friday for their roles in a scheme that enabled North Korea to access U.S.-based computer networks.
Each defendant pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the Justice Department announced.
Alexander Paul Travis, 35, of Augusta was an active-duty member of the U.S. Army at Fort Gordon during the scheme. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $193,265.
Jason Salazar, 30, of Clovis, California, and Audricus Phagnasay, 25, of Fresno, California, were each sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to forfeit $409,876 and $681,926, respectively.
"These men practically gave the keys to the online kingdom to likely North Korean overseas technology workers seeking to raise illicit revenue for the North Korean government — all in return for what to them seemed like easy money," Margaret Heap, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a statement.
"These schemes present a significant challenge to our national security, and we applaud our investigative partners working to secure our digital borders."
Prosecutors said each defendant was contacted by overseas information technology workers and allowed them to create resumes in the defendants' names using false information about their experience.
The information was then used to obtain remote employment with U.S. companies and to pass employer vetting procedures, including video interviews, drug testing, and fingerprinting.
The defendants also opened bank accounts in their names to receive payments from the companies.
In each case, the defendant received a laptop from the hiring company and installed unauthorized software to enable overseas IT workers to access the computers remotely while appearing to work from the defendant's U.S. address.
Travis received at least $51,397, and Phagnasay and Salazar earned at least $3,450 and $4,500, respectively. The scheme generated approximately $1.28 million in salary payments from U.S. companies, the vast majority of which were sent to the IT workers overseas.
"These defendants facilitated a scheme to deceive U.S. companies into hiring foreign remote IT workers," Peter Ellis, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta field office, said in the release.
"The FBI will continue to work with our partners to expose and mitigate these fraudulent IT schemes and provide support to victims of North Korean cyber actors."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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