Treasury sanctions North Koreans, Russians for alleged IT fraud

The Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned 10 individuals and one entity involved in an alleged scheme to defraud American businesses to benefit the North Korean military.

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight North Korean nationals and two Russian nationals, accusing them of facilitating a government-run information technology (IT) scheme to generate revenue for North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

The OFAC also sanctioned the Russia-based First Financial and Technical Development Center, which the North Korean government controls.

Six North Korean IT workers affiliated with the center used artificial intelligence tools and “sophisticated” money-laundering methods to generate more than $750,000, the Treasury Department said.

“The North Korean regime continues targeting and exploiting American companies through fraudulent activities conducted by its overseas IT operatives, who weaponize sensitive data and extort businesses for substantial payments,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a release .

Earlier this month, the Justice Department arrested two Americans , charged 10 China-based individuals and two other unnamed defendants and seized nearly 190 computers as part of enforcement actions against the North Korean government’s alleged targeting of more than 70 U.S. companies.

The Treasury Department unveiled Wednesday’s sanctions less than a week after it proposed curbing American high-tech investments in adversarial countries such as China, Russia and North Korea.

The department said it will restrict investments exceeding $50,000 in hypersonic systems and quantum information technologies, high-performance computing and supercomputing and AI.

President Trump warned in August that North Korea has 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, despite the U.S. government not recognizing the Asian nation as a nuclear-armed state.

While Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un twice during his first term, he said earlier this month he was “not sure” whether there will be a third meeting.

“I’m not sure that anybody’s asking for a meeting. But my relationship with Kim Jong Un is very good,” the president told reporters.