Kyiv man jailed for selling US IDs to North Korean IT workers

A Ukrainian national was sentenced to five years in a US prison for selling stolen identities to North Korean IT workers and for facilitating laptop farms. Oleksandr Didenko, 29, of Kyiv, also known as Alexander Didenko, pleaded guilty in November 2025 to helping North Korean IT workers obtain employment at US companies. Court documents allege that he operated the Upworksell[.]com domain, enabling overseas IT workers to buy or rent the stolen identities of US citizens.

Using these identities, workers obtained jobs through online freelance platforms in California and Pennsylvania, allowing them to bid on IT contracts while living abroad. Prosecutors say he hosted 871 proxy identities and supported at least three laptop farms in residences in Virginia, Tennessee and California, with overseas clients receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for work at 40 US companies; he extradited from Poland on 31 December 2024. Didenko was sentenced to 60 months in prison and 12 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay more than $46,000 in restitution.