FIRST TROLL FARMS, NOW LAPTOP FARMS – This week’s award for most creative traitor goes to an Arizona woman who just earned herself 102 months in federal prison for helping North Korean IT workers pose as Americans, defraud their way into U.S. companies, and cash in big, all to Pyongyang’s benefit. Prosecutors say the woman ran a so-called “laptop farm” out of her suburban home, letting North Korean techies appear to be working remotely from the U.S. while actually collecting paychecks for Pyongyang. Over 300 U.S. companies, including a top-five TV network and a Silicon Valley company, got duped thanks to one very ambitious grifter and her army of laptops. All told, the scheme funneled more than $17 million into North Korea’s pockets. According to court docs, the woman helped steal 68 American identities and shipped nearly 50 corporate laptops abroad, with some ending up suspiciously close to the North Korean border with China. Bonus twist: the North Koreans even tried (and failed) to get IT jobs inside U.S. government agencies. Now that’s a bold move. The woman pleaded guilty back in February. Along with prison time, she’s paying hundreds of thousands in restitution and is being forced to forfeit the cash she made from the scheme. DOJ officials, the FBI, and the IRS – who all worked the case - have one message: if you're helping a hostile regime cheat, steal, or launder you're gonna get caught, even if you're hiding behind a home Wi-Fi router in the Arizona desert.
WHAT’S WORSE THAN WOKE? Derek Huffman, a 46-year-old Texan, may have the answer to that. Huffman and his wife and three daughters reportedly moved to Russia earlier this year to escape “woke America.” He had been promised a job as a welder – and perhaps later as a war correspondent, but according to his wife DeAnna, those promises were a bit hollow, and Derek woke up to find himself on the frontlines of the Ukraine war – with minimal military training. DeAnna says that her hubby felt he was being “thrown to the wolves” due to the limited training which (surprise!) was conducted in Russian. The good news for the family is that after concerns about his status arose – Derek was promised one more week of military training – to add to the two weeks he got before being sent to the front.
SUPE SWAP: In January 2024, Yvette Davids made history when she was promoted to vice admiral and made superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. She was the first woman to hold the position known as “the Supe.” (Her arrival was delayed a few months though because she was among the many senior officers whose promotions were held up by Senator Tommy Tuberville. Ah, so many fond memories from that debacle). Davids came close to making history again recently when the Pentagon announced that if confirmed by the Senate, Marine Lieutenant General Michael Borgschulte would replace her. In doing so, he would become the first Marine general to lead the Academy. The weird thing here is the timing. By law, those assigned as Supe hold the job for no less than three years – a milestone Davids hasn’t yet reached. But she doesn’t hold the record for the shortest tenure. That title goes to Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont who assumed the position in 1853 but resigned after just four months, arguing it was better suited for someone closer to retirement age. It’s not all bad news for Davids, however. Instead of being forced to retire, she was nominated for another job on the Navy staff in the Pentagon. That’s important because U.S. law requires senior officers to serve three years in grade before retiring at their highest rank – and if she just retired after losing the Supe gig…she would likely lose a star…and tens of thousands of dollars in retirement pay annually. Her husband, Keith, a retired Navy SEAL rear admiral ran the White House military office during President Trump’s first term – so perhaps that connection helped her land another vice admiral gig until she has enough time in grade to retire.
SPEAKING OF TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENTS: Marine Corps Colonel Ricky Buria was serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense both during the last administration and the current one. SECDEF Pete Hegseth reportedly took a shine to him and Buria retired from active duty to take a senior civilian position on Hegseth’s staff. (Some reports say that the intent was to make him the Secretary’s chief of staff – but the White House blocked that for some reason.) They seemed to make it up to him though when the White House and DOD declared that forevermore Buria will be known as a “colonel” – despite the fact that he had only been promoted to that rank in November 2024 and had served far less than the normally required time in grade. But “one person familiar with the matter” told the Washington Post that essentially this is just an honorific thing – and is not expected to impact Buria’s retirement pay.
WHITTLING DOWN THE BURN LIST: One challenge that may not confront the new Superintendent at Annapolis is the thorny issue of weeding books out of the Naval Academy library. That process, initiated under VADM Davids tenure in order to comply with directives from the new administration, initially called for some 900 books to be scrutinized. The list was whittled down to about 381 books in April, and now word comes that a Pentagon created “Academic Libraries Committee” may have shelved plans to deep six most of those books. We hear only 21 are currently on the burn list.
WHAT A NOVEL TAG TEAM IDEA: If, like us, you are not entirely up to speed on WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) – you may be a bit fuzzy on who CJ Perry is. But according to Deadline.com she is a former WWE superstar (who also goes by the name Lana.) Our research shows Perry is a wrestling manager, professional wrestler and an actress – but now also is a novelist. She paired up with Blake Northcott who is an author and screenwriter to create “Bulletproof Angel” described as “a high-octane international spy thriller that centers on a brilliant young CIA agent and her estranged mother, a retired operative with a haunted past. The two are forced to work together behind enemy lines to stop an AI-powered weapon system capable of triggering global catastrophe.” The book’s publisher calls it a “book-to-film publishing collaboration.” It’s unclear whether that is aspirational – or whether some film project is already on the books (pardon the pun.)
HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMAC: Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau Chief Michael Wilner recently asked if Hollywood was inspired by the CIA or if it was the other way around. His answer: “all of the above.” The article plowed some of the familiar turf of motion pictures embellishing Agency operations – and the CIA adopting Hollywood tradecraft to provide cover for others. Speaking from Langley, CIA spokesperson Janelle (last name withheld) observes that “One thing Hollywood often gets wrong is the idea that it’s one officer doing everything, when it’s really a team sport here,” but other Agency alumni like author David McCloskey note that for story telling purposes a movie can’t have 35 stars. The article teases that “scenes from a major upcoming film production were just shot at (CIA) headquarters” and adds that “another popular streaming TV series will be back at Langley to film this fall.” Proving that he too can keep a secret – Wilner doesn’t name either production.
HAVE YOU HEARD THOSE STORIES ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN? Nah, us either. Well, maybe one or two. We mentioned a couple of weeks ago that some folks were peddling rumors that the late pedophile had been working on behalf of some intelligence service – such as the Israelis. According to The Telegraph, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who once represented the seedy financier, says he had asked Epstein about such rumors and that Epstein laughed the allegation off. Dershowitz’s take was “No intelligence agency would really trust him.”
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
THE NAVY’S OWN KISS CAM SCANDAL: The USS MIDWAY Museum was minding its own business pier side in San Diego, California where it has been on display since 2004 when a 65-foot-long pleasure boat named “Offshore Lifestyle” gave it a smack along the port bow, according to a bunch of tourists who used their phones to record the boat plowing into the carrier. They say the person driving the boat reversed engines and ducked out like nothing happened. MIDWAY’s hull wasn’t breached, and while you might think that a 1,000-foot-long, 65,000-ton aircraft carrier has little to fear from a drunken party boat, a spokesman for the museum ship says that the bump damaged the special paint on the ship’s hull and estimated the repair bill as high as $100,000. Local authorities, arrested the person they believe was responsible and charged them with “boating under the influence, hit and run, and operating a vessel with a Blood Alcohol Concentration over .08.” Ouch.
INVASION OF THE COCKROACHES: Crawling around the bottom of a recent Reuters story on the state of the German defense industrial complex was this little nugget about the development of cyborg cockroaches outfitted with little spy backpacks that respond to electrical stimuli that allows the humans to control them. The CEO of the company that’s making the little buggers says, “They can be steered individually or operate in swarms.” Now, that’s a pleasant thought.
THE RUMOR MILL: Unverified, unadulterated gossip collected by Dead Drop assets:
CAPTURE THIS: Our assets tell us that there was a paintball ‘battle royale’ recently pitting dozens of young folks against each other at an undisclosed location in the broader D.C. area. The kiddos - who played ‘capture the flag’ - told facility owners that they were students from the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia, (which may be partially true) but our asset tells us that was just cover and that this was a competition of skills between CIA and NSA interns. We’re told the three-letter agency that starts with a “C” took the prize.
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