Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing NK News series exploring Russia-DPRK relations based on court documents.

North Korea-tied entities fell victim to a Russian scammer in a corn supply scheme that exposed a sanctioned DPRK-run procurement network, NK News analysis of court documents found.

According to a Russian court verdict in Dec. 2025, Russian businessman Victor Syumak defrauded a blacklisted Mongolian company run by a former ROK citizen that acted as as a front for processing payments on behalf of a North Korean firm, in a case dating back to April-May 2023.

Syumak had received around $690,000