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St. Louis Agents Disrupt Ring of Fake IT Workers Funding North Korea | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

October 18, 2023

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Kim Jong Un (center) may have benefited from the IT contractors your company hired, the FBI says.

Agents in St. Louis say they have busted up a ring of IT workers using false identities who worked for U.S. companies in order to send the profits back to North Korea.

The FBI says that thousands of North Korean IT workers created false digital identities as Americans in order to perform remote work in the U.S. and raise money for weapons programs in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Jay Greenberg, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in St. Louis, tells the RFT that “thousands upon thousands” of workers in North Korea have been inadvertently employed by companies in the U.S. to perform temporary or contracted IT work. North Korea then takes a portion of their income to fund ballistic and nuclear missile programs.

“More likely than not, if [companies] have augmented their IT workforce, they have employed one of these people and at a bare minimum unknowingly funded North Korean weapons programs,” Greenberg says.

A local victim’s ID was stolen and used to open accounts, and a laptop in the Eastern District of Missouri was accessed by a North Korean IT worker.

The FBI has so far seized $1.5 million in payments that would have gone to the IT workers and subsequently to the North Korean government, according to Greenberg. But that doesn’t foil the whole operation.

“It does not take all the money out of the system, but we know this will be an extreme setback for them,” Greenberg says.

The U.S. considers North Korea an “embargoed country,” so in most circumstances, people or entities in the U.S. are barred from doing business with people in North Korea. Greenberg could not say how many companies or workers are involved, but described the companies as “victims.”

Last year, several media outlets reported on the possibility that American companies could be unknowingly hiring North Korean IT workers. And in many cases, the companies had no idea they were employing malicious cyber actors, Greenberg says. The IT workers often completed the work that was requested from them. Only their identities were fake.

The North Koreans leveraged the increased use of remote work in recent years by creating fake online personas that would have little to no chance of being scrutinized.

The IT workers also hid their identities by accessing “home networks” outside of North Korea through scams that offered unwitting people the opportunity to “earn money at home” by selling access to their wifi system, Greenberg says.

“They’re sort-of remoting into someone’s network and appearing as if they’re working from an IP address in, say, St. Louis,” Greenberg says.
click to enlarge SCREENSHOT If you visit the website for FoxySun Studios, you’ll find this ominous message.

The individuals working on behalf of the North Korean government went so far as to set up fake company websites chock-full of stock photos and claiming to be located in the U.S. One such company was FoxySun Studios LLC. When an FBI agent went to the address in San Francisco listed on FoxySun’s website, they found it didn’t exist.

In February, the Riverfront Times asked the FBI aboutan application for a search warrant related to this investigation that had been made public in the federal court filing system. The FBI stated that the application for the warrant had been made publicly available by mistake. Both the RFT and the Daily Beast, which had also noticed the errant filing, agreed to withhold publication of any information based on the document until today, so as not to compromise the investigation.

The FBI agent applying for the search warrant identified himself in it as a member of the “cyber squad” working out of the bureau’s St. Louis field office. The application was primarily interested in Gmail accounts suspected of being controlled by people working on behalf of North Korea.

“To carry out the freelancing fraud, information technology workers create and utilize a large number of email accounts,” the application reads. “They create and use different personas to create freelancer accounts and disguise their identity.”

The application for the search warrant, which runs 85 pages, says that Google turned over records from more than 225 Gmail accounts in response to a subpoenas related to the investigation. click to enlarge VIA COURT FILES The federal government shared this image of supposed IT workers as an exhibit in a court filing related to this case.

The document says that in August 2019, the FBI interviewed an unidentified individual in the U.S. who has an account on Upwork, a freelancing platform that connects businesses to freelance coders and other tech workers. This person told the FBI that he was being paid by another individual to allow that individual to remote into his computers in the United States and procure freelancing gigs via Upwork.
Payments for the work went to a Paypal account controlled by the unidentified individual in the U.S. That person would keep a portion of the money and send the rest along, unaware it was going to individuals affiliated with the North Korean government.

The search warrant application suggests that tech workers earning money for North Korea would go so far as to show up to virtual interviews for freelancing work, though they would not turn on their webcams.

The application for the warrant also indicates that the individuals aiding in the funneling of money to the North Korean government used other platforms in addition to Upwork, including Freelancer, Guru and Fiverr.

The FBI has seized certain domains used to obtain freelance work under fraudulent identities, including edenprogram.com, which North Korean IT workers used as a software development and portfolio website.

Greenberg encouraged companies who hire outside IT help to scrutinize who they hire and demand video conferences for face-to-face communication.

“They may not look like the driver’s license they submitted,” Greenberg says.

The workers may also have phone numbers with area codes that don’t match the place they say they live in. Or they may give a mailing address that doesn’t match their location.

“A really light internet search will probably reveal inconsistencies that should give them enough reason to dig a little more,” Greenberg says.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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