(The Center Square) — An Arizona woman is going to prison after she helped North Koreans land jobs with American companies.
Christina Marie Chapman, from Litchfield Park, received over eight years in a federal prison after pleading guilty in February to committing wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
A U.S. Department of Justice press release noted Chapman will have an additional three years of supervised release after completing her prison sentence.
Furthermore, she will need to forfeit $284,556 and pay a judgment of $176,850.
Chapman, 50 years, helped North Koreans obtain remote information technology jobs at 309 American companies. Her scheme garnered over $17 million for herself and North Korea. Sixty-eight people in the United States had their identities stolen as part of this scheme.
Court documents said Chapman helped North Koreans obtain jobs at Fortune 500 companies, a major television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, and a U.S media and entertainment company.
Some of these North Koreans attempted to secure employment at two different government agencies, but they were unsuccessful in doing so.
Chapman orchestrated a “laptop farm” where she received and hosted computers from American employers at her residence. When the laptops came from American companies, she shipped 49 laptops and other work-related items to overseas locations, including numerous shipments to a Chinese city bordering North Korea.
In 2023, when law enforcement officials executed a search warrant, they confiscated more than 90 laptops from Chapman’s home.
When it came to reporting the money, Chapman used stolen people’s identities to make false claims. She received and forged payroll checks in the names of these individuals. American companies would send direct deposit payments to her financial accounts.
Once the money was in one of her bank accounts, Chapman would send the money to people overseas.
Chapman falsely reported millions of dollars of income generated to the IRS and Social Security Administration using these stolen identities.
The DOJ stated this is one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes it has ever investigated.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia said North Korea is “not just a threat to the homeland from afar. It is an enemy within.”
“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,” Pirro said. “Corporations failing to verify virtual employees pose a security risk for all. You are the first line of defense against the North Korean threat.”
Matthew Galeotti, the DOJ’s acting assistant attorney general, said Chapman made the wrong decision in choosing to support a foreign adversary at the detriment of American citizens. He said her decision for short-term personal gain will now have “severe long-term consequences.”
“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,” Galeotti said.
