Emanuel Ashtor confirmed

According to the indictment, over the course of their scheme, from approximately April 2018 through August 2024, the defendants and their unindicted co-conspirators obtained work from at least sixty-four U.S. companies. Payments from ten of those companies generated at least $866,255 in revenue, most of which the defendants then laundered through a Chinese bank account. As part of this prosecution, the FBI arrested Ntekereze and Ashtor and executed a search of Ashtor’s residence in North Carolina, where he previously operated a “laptop farm” that hosted victim company-provided laptops to deceive companies into thinking they had hired U.S.-located workers. Alonso was arrested in the Netherlands on Jan. 10, pursuant to an arrest warrant from the United States. According to the indictment, the defendants used forged and stolen identity documents, including U.S. passports containing the stolen personally identifiable information of a U.S. person, to conceal the true identities of Jin, Pak, and other North Korean co-conspirators, so that these North Korean nationals could circumvent sanctions and other laws to obtain employment with U.S. companies. Ntekereze and Ashtor received laptops from U.S. company employers at their residences, downloading and installing remote access software on them, without authorization, to facilitate IT worker access and to perpetuate the deception of U.S. companies.