• Ukrainian gets 5 years for helping North Koreans infiltrate US firms February 20, 2026 04:00 AM 0 A Ukrainian national was sentenced to five years in prison for providing North Korean IT workers with stolen identities that helped them infiltrate U.S. • 39-year-old Oleksandr Didenko of Kyiv, Ukraine,pleaded guiltyin November 2025 to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud conspiracy after being arrested in Poland in May 2024. • This week, he was sentenced to 60 months in prison and 12 months of supervised release, and agreed to forfeit more than $1.4 million, including cash and cryptocurrency seized from Didenko and his accomplices. • “Oleksandr Didenko participated in a scheme that stole the identities of hundreds of people, to include United States citizens, which were used by North Korea to fraudulently secure lucrative IT jobs,” said James Barnacle, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office. • “This massive operation not only created an unauthorized backdoor into our country’s job market, but helped fund the regime of an adversary.” According tocourt documents, Didenko stole U.S. • citizens’ identities and sold them to overseas IT workers throughan online platform known as UpWorkSell(which wasseizedby the Justice Department), who used them to fraudulently secure jobs with 40 U.S.

Article Summaries:

  • A Ukrainian national, Oleksandr Didenko, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for aiding North Korean IT workers in infiltrating U.S. companies. Didenko, arrested in Poland in May 2024, pleaded guilty in November 2025 to aggravated identity theft and wire‑fraud conspiracy. He sold stolen U.S. identities through an online platform, enabling North Korean workers to secure jobs with 40 U.S. firms and operate “laptop farms” across several states and countries. The court ordered 12 months of supervised release and forfeiture of over $1.4 million, including seized cash and cryptocurrency. The case underscores ongoing U.S. efforts to curb North Korean cyber‑espionage and identity‑theft schemes.

Sources: