"In November 2025, Oleksandr "Alexander" Didenko pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for stealing the identities of U.S. citizens and selling them to IT workers to help them land jobs at 40 U.S. companies and draw regular salaries, which were then funneled back to the regime to support its weapons programs. He was apprehended by Polish authorities in late 2024, and later extradited to the U.S."
"The defendant is said to have run a website named Upworksell[.]com to help overseas IT workers buy or rent stolen or borrowed identities since the start of 2021. The IT workers abused these identities to apply for jobs on freelance work platforms based in California and Pennsylvania. The site was seized by authorities on May 16, 2024. In addition, Didenko paid individuals in the U.S. to receive and host laptops at their residences in Virginia, Tennessee and California."
"As part of the criminal scheme, Didenko managed as many as 871 proxy identities and facilitated the operation of at least three U.S.-based laptop farms. One of the computers was sent to a laptop farm run by Christina Marie Chapman in Arizona. Chapman was arrested in May 2024 and sentenced to 102 months in prison in July 2025 for participating in the scheme."
Oleksandr "Alexander" Didenko pleaded guilty in November 2025 to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for stealing U.S. citizens' identities and selling them to IT workers who obtained jobs at 40 U.S. companies. Those workers drew regular salaries that were funneled back to North Korea to support its weapons programs. Polish authorities apprehended Didenko in late 2024 and extradited him to the U.S. He was sentenced to five years in prison, ordered to serve 12 months supervised release, to pay $46,547.28 restitution, and to forfeit more than $1.4 million. Didenko operated Upworksell[.]com since 2021, managed up to 871 proxy identities, and facilitated at least three U.S.-based laptop farms using hosted laptops in multiple states.
Read at The Hacker News
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