Two U.S. nationals have been sentenced to prison for helping North Korean IT workers infiltrate more than 100 American companies by stealing identities and setting up fraudulent remote work schemes, the Justice Department announced.
Kejia Wang, 42, of Edison, New Jersey, was sentenced to 108 months in prison, and Zhenxing Wang, 39, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was sentenced to 92 months, according to the Justice Department. Both pleaded guilty in the District of Massachusetts — Kejia Wang in September 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft, and Zhenxing Wang in January 2026 to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies.
U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton also ordered the defendants to serve three years of supervised release and to forfeit a combined $600,000 in proceeds from the scheme. The court ordered Kejia Wang to pay $29,236.03 in restitution.
The scheme ran from approximately 2021 until October 2024 and used the stolen identities of more than 80 Americans to secure remote employment at more than 100 U.S. companies, including many Fortune 500 firms, prosecutors said. The operation generated more than $5 million in revenue for the government of North Korea, according to court documents, while causing U.S. victim companies at least $3 million in legal fees, network remediation costs, and other damages.
Kejia Wang served as the U.S.-based manager of the scheme, supervising at least five in-country facilitators who hosted hundreds of company-issued laptops at their homes, court documents show. Zhenxing Wang was among those facilitators, receiving and hosting company laptops at his residence. The defendants and their co-conspirators enabled overseas North Korean workers to access the laptops remotely, including through the use of hardware devices known as KVM switches.
To conceal the operation, the two men created shell companies — including Hopana Tech LLC, Tony WKJ LLC, and Independent Lab LLC — that had no actual employees or operations but were used to receive and funnel funds to overseas co-conspirators, prosecutors said.
The scheme also led to unauthorized access to sensitive employer data, including technical data controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations from a California-based defense contractor, according to court documents.
Eight other defendants indicted in June 2025 remain at large. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of financial mechanisms supporting certain North Korea-related activities, including those tied to this case.
This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times’ AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times’ original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.
