Nashville Resident Indicted For Aiding North Korea’s Weapons Programs
Matthew Knoot from Nashville, Tennessee has been indicted under federal charges for allegedly aiding North Korea’s (DPRK) ballistic weapons programs in a massive IT jobs fraud scheme, a new U.S. Department of Justice press release reveals.
According to the press release, North Korea employs “thousands of skilled IT workers to live abroad” each year, where they can receive up to $300,000 annually. This salary is then funneled back to North Korea, where the Kim Jong Un-led country uses the funds to support its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
THIS TENNESSEE MAN HAS BEEN HELPING TO FUND NORTH KOREA’S WEAPONS PROGRAM…
– According to a report from DLNews, Matthew Isaac Knoot (38), a resident in the US state of Tennessee, has been charged with offenses relating to North Korea.
– He allegedly helped North Korean workers… https://t.co/EXfVCbUXKZ pic.twitter.com/GSI1HD2p6e
Between July 2022 and August 2023, Knoot reportedly ran a “laptop farm” that assisted several North Korean workers in obtaining illicit employment at U.S. and British tech companies, despite the companies believing they were hiring U.S. based employees.
“Knoot allegedly assisted them in using a stolen identity to pose as a U.S. citizen; hosted company laptops at his residences; downloaded and installed software without authorization on such laptops to facilitate access and perpetuate the deception; and conspired to launder payments for the remote IT work, including to accounts tied to North Korean and Chinese actors,” the press release reads.
The Nashville resident was purportedly paid an undisclosed amount of money for his role in the scheme on a monthly basis while his IT scheme cost victim companies over $500,000.
The indictment features a bevy of charges
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