Arizona Woman Sentenced to 8 Years for Helping North Korean Spies to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old Arizona resident, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for her role in a scheme that allowed North Korean spies to infiltrate 309 U.S. companies using false identities as IT workers.

Bleeping Computer reports that in a significant development in the fight against international cyber crime, Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old woman from Arizona, has been sentenced to 102 months in prison for her involvement in a scheme that enabled North Korean IT workers to infiltrate 309 U.S. companies. Chapman pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, identity fraud, and bank fraud.

According to court documents, Chapman hosted the North Korean IT workers’ computers in her own home between October 2020 and October 2023, creating a “laptop farm” that made it appear as though the devices were located in the United States. The North Koreans were hired as remote software and application developers by multiple Fortune 500 companies, including an aerospace and defense company, a major television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, and a high-profile company.

As a result of this scheme, the North Korean workers collected over $17 million in illicit compensation, which was shared with Chapman, who processed their paychecks through her financial accounts. The Justice Department stated, “Chapman operated a ‘laptop farm’ where she received and hosted computers from the U.S. companies her home, so that the companies would believe the workers were in the United States. Chapman also shipped 49 laptops and other devices supplied by U.S. companies to locations overseas, including multiple shipments to a city in China on the border with North Korea. More than 90 laptops were seized from Chapman’s home following the execution of a search warrant in October 2023.”

Chapman was charged in May, together with Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Didenko, who ran an online platform known as UpWorkSell that provided services allowing North Koreans to use false identities while hunting for remote IT work positions. Three other foreign nationals, known only by their aliases (Jiho Han, Haoran Xu, and Chunji Jin) and part of the same criminal group, were also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also sanctioned a North Korean front company and three associated individuals who were linked to fraudulent information technology (IT) worker schemes. In recent weeks, the Department of Justice disrupted an extensive network of individuals who helped North Korean workers obtain remote jobs at U.S. companies, while the FBI updated its guidance for U.S. businesses.