Arizona woman sentenced for scheme helping North Koreans steal American jobs

An Arizona woman was sentenced to over eight years in prison for her role in a massive scheme that duped American companies into hiring North Korean workers, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday.

Christina Marie Chapman was sentenced to 102 months in federal prison for operating a “laptop farm” that helped North Korean IT workers impersonate U.S. citizens and residents to secure remote jobs at more than 300 U.S. companies, according to the DOJ. The scheme generated over $17 million in revenue for Chapman and the North Korean regime.

“North Korea is not just a threat to the homeland from afar. It is an enemy within. It is perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies, and American banks. It is a threat to Main Street in every sense of the word,” said Jeanine Ferris Pirro, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “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. Corporations failing to verify virtual employees pose a security risk for all. You are the first line of defense against the North Korean threat.”

Chapman’s North Korean collaborators used stolen or fabricated American identities to secure remote employment with major U.S. firms, including a top-five television network, a Silicon Valley tech company, an aerospace manufacturer, a car maker, a luxury retail store and a media and entertainment company, the DOJ said. The North Koreans also attempted to obtain employment at two U.S. government agencies, but were unsuccessful.

Investigators seized over 90 laptops from Chapman’s home in 2023, according to the DOJ. Chapman also shipped 49 laptops supplied by U.S. firms to locations overseas, including to a city in China on the border with North Korea.

The case was one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes on record, with over 68 identities stolen and 309 U.S. businesses and two international firms defrauded, the DOJ said.

“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,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “I encourage companies to remain vigilant of these cyber threats, and warn individuals who may be tempted by similar schemes to take heed of today’s sentence.”

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