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【U.S. Department of Justice arrests two people and seizes 187 devices in crackdown on North Korean laptop farms】
The U.S. Department of Justice October 13 announced that, in an operation targeting North Korean IT personnel who entered U.S. companies under false identities, it arrested two Americans and seized approximately 187 computer devices. Michael James Bostelle of Pennsylvania and Juan Cecilio Pena Carrillo of Texas were arrested pursuant to an indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Prosecutors allege that the scheme involved more than 70 U.S. employers and generated approximately IT in income for overseas 3000000 USD personnel. The two men were charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit identity theft; Pena was additionally charged with aggravated identity theft. The device-seizure operation was part of “Operation Lone Star Hunt,” coordinated by federal law-enforcement agencies in the Northern District of Texas.September 21 to 25，FBI searches were conducted at 40 locations in Texas suspected of hosting “laptop farms,” and the seized equipment included laptops as well as keyboard, video, and mouse devices for remote access. According to the Ohio indictment, U.S.-based facilitators received laptops issued by employers at their homes, then used remote-access software or hardware to allow overseas personnel to operate them, making them appear to be located in the United States and enabling access to company systems. The facilitators collected the wages and transferred the funds overseas. The indictment mentions cryptocurrency as one means of transferring funds abroad. Ohio resident Trey Michael Nolte was identified as a co-conspirator but was not charged in this case. The indictment states that, in a conversation in July 8, 2024 he described using a spreadsheet to manage transfers between bank accounts and virtual currency, then transferring the funds to defendant Sun Sheng Ming.