A Nashville man has been hit with federal charges by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly scheming to funnel money to North Korea for the dictatorship’s weapons program, which includes weapons of mass destruction.
Matthew Isaac Knoot, 38, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested Thursday.
“According to court documents, Knoot participated in a scheme to obtain remote employment with American and British companies for foreign information technology (IT) workers, who were actually North Korean actors,” the DOJ said. “Knoot allegedly assisted them in using a stolen identity to pose as a U.S. citizen; hosted company laptops at his residences; downloaded and installed software without authorization on such laptops to facilitate access and perpetuate the deception; and conspired to launder payments for the remote IT work, including to accounts tied to North Korean and Chinese actors.”
The DOJ said Knoot ran a “laptop farm” at his multiple Nashville residences.
When companies hired Knoot, who went by the alias “Andrew M.,” to do their IT work, they shipped him laptops. On those laptops, Knoot allegedly downloaded illicit software that allowed his foreign agent friends to manipulate them remotely.
“The remote desktop applications enabled the North Korean IT workers to work from locations in China, while appearing to the victim companies that “Andrew M.” was working from Knoot’s residences in Nashville,” according to the DOJ. “For his participation in the scheme, Knoot was paid a monthly fee for his services by a foreign-based facilitator who went by the name Yang Di. A court-authorized search of Knoot’s laptop farm was executed in early August 2023.”
Knoot has been charged with conspiracy to cause damage to protected computers, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to protected computers, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to cause the unlawful employment of aliens.
According to the DOJ, the aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison. Knoot faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars if convicted on all charges.
“North Korea has dispatched thousands of highly skilled information technology workers around the world to dupe unwitting businesses and evade international sanctions so that it can continue to fund its dangerous weapons program,” said U.S. Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. “Today’s indictment, charging the defendant with facilitating a complex, multi-year scheme that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to foreign actors, is the most recent example of our office’s commitment to protecting the United States’ national security interests.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
