Former Fort Gordon soldier gets prison for scheme with N. Koreans

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A former Fort Gordon soldier has been sentenced for his role in a scheme that gave North Korean workers access to U.S.-based computer networks.

Alexander Paul Travis, 35, of Augusta, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and forfeiture of $193,265.

Also sentenced in the scheme were Jason Salazar, 30, and Audricus Phagnasay, 25, both of California. They were ordered to forfeit $409,876 and $681,926, respectively, and each got three years of probation.

Each defendant pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy, according to federal prosecutors.

“These men practically gave the keys to the online kingdom to likely North Korean overseas technology workers seeking to raise illicit revenue for the North Korean government – all in return for what to them seemed like easy money,” said U.S. Attorney Meg Heap. “These schemes present a significant challenge to our national security.”

Since 2003, United States and United Nations sanctions cut off North Korea from the U.S. marketplace and financial systems and restricted Americans from doing business with North Korean institutions.

North Korea responded with a variety of schemes to evade those sanctions, according to authorities. The revenues from those schemes contribute to North Korea’s weapons programs in violation of U.S. and U.N. sanctions, according to American authorities.

The defendants’ guilty pleas describe how they were contacted by overseas workers, and each defendant allowed those workers to:

• Create resumes in the defendants’ names with false information about their experience.
• Use those false representations and identities to obtain remote employment with U.S. companies.
• Pass employer vetting procedures, including video interviews, drug testing and fingerprinting.
• Open bank accounts in the defendants’ names to receive payment from the U.S. companies.

In each case, the defendant would receive a laptop computer from the company that hired the fictitious worker, and then would install unauthorized software to enable the overseas IT worker to access the computers remotely while appearing to work from the defendant’s address in the United States.

Travis, who was an active-duty member of the Army stationed at Fort Gordon at the time, received at least $51,397 for his participation in the scheme.

Phagnasay and Salazar earned at least $3,450 and $4,500, respectively.

The fraudulent scheme earned approximately $1.28 million in salary payments from the victim U.S. companies, the vast majority of which were sent to the IT workers overseas.

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