The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested a man in the state of Tennessee who is suspected of operating a “laptop farm” that allowed North Koreans to obtain work with IT firms by pretending to be located in the U.S.
Matthew Isaac Knoot is accused of defrauding multiple U.S. and UK companies by applying for jobs on behalf of North Koreans. Knoot was sent laptops by the employers and he is alleged to have run them from his home and allowed the North Koreans to log in remotely.

Each of the remote jobs is said to have earned an average of $250,000 annually for the North Korean regime.

This is the second alleged laptop farm to have been shut down by the authorities in the U.S. this year. In May, a woman in Arizona was charged for her role in assisting North Koreans in acquiring remote jobs.