"Ukrainian national Oleksandr Didenko will spend the next five years behind bars in the US for his involvement in helping North Korean IT workers secure fraudulent employment. The 29-year-old played a role in supporting individuals working for a hostile regime to get contracts in the US. In November 2025, Didenko pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, charges related to his website Upworksell.com, which allowed the North Korean techies assume identities stolen from US citizens and use them to secure employment."
"Workers rely on being able to trick US companies into believing they are citizens by using resources such as identity providers like Didenko and laptop farms, which the Ukrainian also funded. Laptop farms are exactly as they sound. Individuals in the US are paid to operate a series of laptops or PCs to which North Korean workers remotely connect and use to carry out their US job duties."
"According to prosecutors, Didenko ran Upworksell between 2021 and May 2024, when the Justice Department seized the domain, diverting all traffic to servers controlled by the FBI. Polish police arrested him later that year, and he was extradited on December 31, 2024. Didenko operated as many as 871 proxy identities during this time, official suspect, and he paid people in at least three residences across California, Tennessee, and Virginia to run laptop farms."
Oleksandr Didenko was sentenced to five years in US prison for facilitating fraudulent employment for North Korean IT workers. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for operating Upworksell.com, which enabled North Korean techies to assume identities stolen from US citizens and win US contracts. The scheme used identity providers and laptop farms to mask North Korean origins and funnel salaries to fund Pyongyang's military. Law enforcement seized the Upworksell domain in May 2024, Polish police arrested Didenko later that year, and he was extradited to the United States on December 31, 2024. Prosecutors attributed up to 871 proxy identities and coordinated laptop farms in multiple US residences to his operation.
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