Million-Dollar Identity Fraud Exposed in the US: Fake Employees Infiltrate 13 Companies, Even Access Federal Sensitive Systems

[Crypto World] A bizarre case of identity fraud was recently exposed in the US. A 40-year-old man spent the past few years using fake identities to help IT personnel from a certain country infiltrate American tech companies. From 2021 to 2024, this guy cashed out nearly $1 million through 13 companies, with all the actual work being done remotely from overseas.

What’s even crazier is that these “fake employees” were granted significant privileges—they could even access systems as sensitive as those of the Federal Aviation Administration. After investigating, the Department of Justice found this wasn’t an isolated case; there was an entire organized operation behind it, with the goal of funneling money out to support special projects abroad.

In the end, the man was sentenced to 15 months in prison plus three years of supervised release. This case serves as a wake-up call for the industry: identity verification in remote hiring really needs to be tightened, or your company could be the next to fall victim. This is especially true in the Web3 industry, which is already highly globalized—if you don’t pay close attention to KYC processes, it’s only a matter of time before something major goes wrong.