Associated Incidents
An Arizona woman was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for helping North Korean workers obtain remote jobs at U.S. companies using false U.S. identities, generating more than $17 million mostly for Pyongyang between about October 2020 and October 2023.
Christina Marie Chapman, 50, of Litchfield Park, was sentenced to 102 months in prison on Thursday after she pleaded guilty in February in the District of Columbia to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
She was among several U.S. and foreign nationals indicted in recent years over participating in schemes to help North Koreans obtain remote jobs using false U.S. identities. The reclusive regime is under U.S. and United Nations sanctions, which prevent U.S. companies from conducting most transactions with its nationals.
Chapman was paid $176,850, and much of the wages earned by North Korean workers eventually made its way to the autocratic government of leader Kim Jong Un, the Justice Department said.
U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss ordered Chapman to pay back what she made and to forfeit $284,556 that was yet to be paid to the North Koreans.
Chapman's role in the scheme was to operate a "laptop farm," where she hosted dozens of computers and other hardware sent by U.S. companies to her address so that the companies believed the work was being done within the United States.
More than 300 U.S. companies hired the North Korean workers for IT positions, including a top-five major television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace manufacturer, an American carmaker, a luxury retail store and a U.S. media and entertainment company, the Justice Department said. At least 68 U.S.-based victims had their identities stolen to be misrepresented as working for the U.S. companies as part of the scheme.
On some occasions, Chapman sent work equipment on to other locations --- most frequently to Dandong, China, on the North Korean border --- and other times kept it in her home. She installed a program on those computers that allowed remote access to them from overseas.
Wages were deposited into Chapman's bank account and payroll checks were sent to her, and she transferred the money onward.
Her name, address and debit card were also used to register with a background-check company, with which co-conspirators were able to buy useful information to impersonate U.S. nationals, and she mailed fraudulent documentation.
Chapman's attorneys told the court that she had experienced repeated physical, emotional and sexual abuse as a child and lacked life skills. She enrolled in a computer science boot camp after she became her mother's caregiver following a cancer diagnosis and was soon recruited for the job.
After she became aware of the illegality of the role, she continued because "for the first time in her life," she was financially stable and could support her mother, who died in 2023, according to her attorneys.
In a letter to the judge, she said she felt "deeply ashamed" and also wanted to thank the FBI. "I had been trying to get away from the guys that I was working with for awhile and wasn't really sure how to do it," she wrote, adding that, "while this wasn't the ideal way," she was "thankful" to have been extricated from the scheme.
Matthew R. Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said Chapman had "made the wrong calculation: short term personal gains that inflict harm on our citizens and support a foreign adversary."