US charges Tennessee man in North Korea IT worker fraud scheme

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced charges against a Tennessee man accused of helping North Koreans land IT jobs with American and British companies to fund Pyongyang's weapons programs.

Matthew Isaac Knoot, 38, helped the North Korean workers remotely access software from unwitting companies, which thought they were hiring American employees, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Nashville.

“This indictment should serve as a stark warning to U.S. businesses that employ remote IT workers of the growing threat from the DPRK and the need to be vigilant in their hiring processes," Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Knoot faces several charges, including conspiracy to commit computer fraud and money laundering. He has not yet entered a plea.

Attorney information for Knoot was not immediately available.

North Korea has dispatched thousands of IT workers overseas in recent years, to bring in millions to finance the isolated country's nuclear missile program, according to the United States, South Korea, and the United Nations.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Jonathan Oatis)