Defense contractor employee pleads guilty to aiding North Korean remote IT scheme

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Gainesville man pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud relating to a scheme involving fraudulent applications for remote employment using borrowed U.S. identities.

According to court documents from June to August 2025, John Allen Kurrle Jr., 62, was employed by a defense contractor for the U.S. government and held an active Top Secret security clearance with access to secret compartmented information (SCI). During that time, Kurrle participated in a scheme to defraud U.S. companies, including U.S. government contractors, in which he allowed foreign individuals to use his identity to apply for remote work positions and to fraudulently use the identity of a third person to apply for remote positions.

In addition to allowing the use of his identity to apply for remote work positions, Kurrle received laptops shipped by victim companies to his home in Gainesville and enabled remote access from outside the United States.

The applications using Kurrle's identity or a stolen identity induced nine job offers from U.S. companies.

To evade economic sanctions and earn money for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), the North Korean government has dispatched thousands of IT workers to obtain remote employment with companies around the world. North Korean IT workers are aided in this fraud by people residing in the United States who facilitate the scheme by receiving and hosting computers and other hardware issued by U.S. victim companies. In exchange, U.S. facilitators are paid a fee.

Kurrle is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 28, 2027, and faces up to 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Daniel S. Wierzbicki, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff accepted the plea.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Keim for the Eastern District of Virginia and Deputy Chief Matthew A. Anzaldi for the National Security Cyber Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division, are prosecuting the case.

Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District CourtLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACERLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-198.