A suburban Arizona woman has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for helping North Koreans earn millions for the regime’s nuclear weapons program by infiltrating US companies posing as American citizens, authorities said.
Christina Marie Chapman, 50, has been ordered to serve eight-and-a-half years in prison plus three years of supervised release and pay hefty fines for her role in the international scheme, according to the Justice Department.
Chapman ran a ‘laptop farm’ from her home in Litchfield Park outside Phoenix, where she helped North Korean workers with stolen identities work remotely at US-based companies.
‘The case involved one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes charged by the Department of Justice, with 68 identities stolen from victims in the United States and 309 US businesses and two international businesses defrauded,’ the Justice Department said.
The companies included Fortune 500 companies, a top five television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace manufacturer, a car maker, a luxury retail store, and a media and entertainment company.
The Justice Department noted that the scheme attempted to infiltrate at least two government agencies, but was unsuccessful.
It generated more than $17 million for Chapman and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Prosecutors said Chapman became involved around October 2020 and helped North Korean workers secure American jobs for about three years.
Christina Marie Chapman, 50, has been ordered to serve eight-and-a-half years in prison plus three years of supervised release and pay hefty fines for her role in the international scheme
The Justice Department said the operation generated over $17 million in illegal funds for the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (Pictured: Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un)
She helped validate stolen identification information from US nationals so the North Korean workers could pose as Americans.
Chapman turned her home into a ‘laptop farm,’ where she received computers issued by the companies so that they believed the workers were living in the US.
She sent other laptops to foreign nationals overseas, including several shipments to a Chinese city on the border with North Korea.
She would log on from her home while the overseas employees patched in remotely.
Chapman listed her home address for the workers’ paychecks, deposited them into her bank account and then transferred the funds to North Korea, keeping a cut of the pay for herself.
She forged the signatures of the beneficiaries, sent false information to the Department of Homeland Security over 100 times, and created false tax liabilities for over 35 Americans.
Chapman’s involvement was part of a larger operation North Korean IT workers to infiltrate American companies.
in May 2024, charges were brought against three unidentified foreign nationals and a Ukrainian man for creating fake accounts on US IT job search platforms.
Chapman launched the ‘laptop farm’ from her suburban home in Litchfield Park, Arizona (pictured)
Chapman received computers issued by the companies so that they believed the workers were living in the US
Oleksandr Didenko, 27, carried out the scheme from Kyiv for years. He sold the fake accounts to overseas IT workers, who then used the identities to apply for remote work based in the US.
‘Several U.S. persons had their identities used by IT workers related to Didenko’s cell, and evidence in the complaint showed that the overseas IT workers using Didenko’s services were also working with Chapman,’ the Justice Department announced at the time.
Chapman’s address came up multiple times after the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an inquiry.
Didenko was arrested by Polish authorities at the request of the Justice Department, seeking the fraudster’s extradition.
Chapman’s residence was searched in October 2023, revealing the illegal ‘laptop farm’ she ran.
She pleaded guilty in February to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
As part of her sentence, Chapman was ordered to forfeit $284,555.92 that was paid to the Korean workers and was fined $176,850.
‘Chapman made the wrong calculation: short term personal gains that inflict harm on our citizens and support a foreign adversary will have severe long term consequences,’ Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti said of her sentencing.
‘North Korea is not just a threat to the homeland from afar. It is an enemy within,’ U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro added.
Chapman helped validate stolen identification information from US nationals so the North Korean workers could pose as Americans
‘It is perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies, and American banks.
‘The call is coming from inside the house. If this happened to these big banks, to these Fortune 500, brand name, quintessential American companies, it can or is happening at your company.’
Chapman’s case goes beyond her Arizona laptop farm, as the FBI has identified an ongoing threat of foreign nationals posing as Americans to secure remote work.
The FBI issued an alert in January warning companies of a large-scale operation targeting the US.
The alert noted that companies that outsource IT work to third-party vendors are particularly vulnerable targets.
To prevent falling victim to the scheme, the FBI advised hiring managers to cross-reference photographs and contact information with social media to verify that the person applying for the position is really who they say they are.
The bureau also noted that requiring in-person meetings and only sending tech material to the address listed on the employee’s contact information helps prevent fraud.