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The January 2025 case behind this headline named two U.S. nationals—not one—alongside two North Korean nationals and a Mexican national. Prosecutors alleged that the group helped North Korean IT workers use false identities and U.S.-based company laptops to obtain remote jobs and generate revenue for North Korea. These were indictment allegations, not findings of guilt. A later Justice Department update said one of the U.S. defendants had pleaded guilty; the other was awaiting trial at the time of that update.
What prosecutors alleged in the case
In an indictment announced on January 23, 2025, the Justice Department accused U.S. nationals Erick Ntekereze Prince and Emanuel Ashtor, North Korean nationals Jin Sung-Il and Pak Jin-Song, and Mexican national Pedro Ernesto Alonso De Los Reyes of participating in a scheme to help North Korean IT workers obtain remote employment. DOJ said the alleged activity ran from approximately April 2018 through August 2024.
According to DOJ’s summary of the indictment, the scheme obtained work from at least 64 U.S. companies. Payments from ten of those companies generated at least $866,255 in revenue, most of which prosecutors said was laundered through a Chinese bank account. Those figures describe the government’s allegations; they are not adjudicated findings.
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False or stolen identities
Prosecutors alleged that participants used forged and stolen identity documents, including U.S. passports containing another person’s stolen personally identifiable information. DOJ also described pseudonymous accounts on email, social media, payment platforms and job sites, as well as proxy computers and third parties, as methods used in DPRK IT-worker schemes.
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Company laptops hosted in the United States
DOJ said U.S.-based facilitators received laptops supplied by employers at residences and installed remote-access software without authorization. The alleged setup allowed overseas workers to use those machines and appear to be working from the United States. The announcement reported that the FBI arrested Ntekereze and Ashtor and searched Ashtor’s North Carolina residence, where Ashtor had previously operated a laptop farm.
The indictment described alleged fraud and unauthorized computer activity connected to employment. It does not establish that every North Korean IT worker, or every person accused in this case, engaged in data theft or extortion.
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Charges and later case developments
The five defendants were charged with conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer, conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to transfer false identification documents. Jin and Pak also faced a charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Justice Department said the listed charges carried a maximum possible penalty of 20 years in prison. That is a statutory maximum, not a prediction of a sentence: any sentence would depend on a conviction, the applicable sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
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In a November 2025 enforcement release, DOJ said Ntekereze Prince had pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in the Southern District of Florida. That release described him as having contracted IT workers through Taggcar Inc. and hosted company laptops. It said Ashtor was awaiting trial at that point. Those are the later procedural details established in the cited DOJ update; they do not establish a subsequent outcome for Ashtor or the other defendants.
What the case does—and does not—say about North Korean IT workers
DOJ says North Korea sends skilled IT workers abroad, primarily to China and Russia, to seek freelance and remote work under concealed identities and generate revenue for the regime. The government has also warned that some workers have used access gained through employment to take proprietary information or commit data extortion. Those broader warnings are distinct from the specific allegations in the Prince-Ashtor indictment.
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A May 2022 advisory by the FBI, U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of the Treasury estimated that a worker could generate up to $300,000 annually and that the broader activity brought in hundreds of millions of dollars collectively each year. That government estimate concerns the wider DPRK IT-worker scheme—not the proceeds attributed to this case.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran said: “FBI investigation has uncovered a years-long plot to install North Korean IT workers as remote employees to generate revenue for the DPRK regime and evade sanctions,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division.
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Do not conflate this case with other laptop-farm prosecutions
Other cases have involved alleged assistance to overseas IT workers, but they are separate prosecutions with different defendants and figures.
| Proceeding | What DOJ announced | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Prince-Ashtor case, January 2025 | Five defendants; alleged work involving at least 64 U.S. companies and at least $866,255 in payments from ten companies. | The case discussed above. DOJ later reported Ntekereze Prince’s guilty plea and said Ashtor was awaiting trial as of its November 2025 update. |
| Christina Marie Chapman case, May 2024 | An Arizona U.S. citizen was accused of running a laptop farm connected to overseas IT workers and a scheme affecting more than 300 U.S. companies. | A separate indictment, not another defendant in the January 2025 case. |
| Massachusetts case, June 2025 | A separate indictment alleged that more than 80 U.S. identities were compromised, more than 100 U.S. companies were affected, overseas IT workers received at least $5 million in revenue, and victim companies lost at least $3 million. | These allegations and amounts do not belong to the Prince-Ashtor case. |
Why the headline’s wording needs care
Calling the defendants “hackers” can blur the distinction between the alleged job-fraud scheme and the government’s broader warnings about possible data theft or extortion by some workers. The January 2025 announcement focused on alleged identity fraud, remote employment, money laundering and protected-computer offenses. It named two U.S. nationals accused of helping—not a single U.S. citizen—and the allegations should not be treated as convictions.
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