American woman sentenced for role in massive $17M North Korean IT worker fraud scheme

An Arizona woman has been sentenced for her role in one of the biggest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes the Department of Justice (DoJ) has ever seen.

Christina Marie Chapman, 50, who was previously charged for allegedly assisting North Koreans in finding American jobs as remote software and application developers from October 2020 to October 2023, has pleaded guilty.

Chapman assisted in what the DoJ has called “one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes charged by the Department of Justice.”

The scheme, which defrauded over 300 US businesses and two international companies, involved 68 stolen identities from victims in the United States and $17 million in misappropriated funds.

North Korean IT worker schemes are becoming increasingly common, with highly skilled workers being deployed from the state to obtain jobs using stolen identities.

Chapman helped North Korean IT workers find jobs at 309 US companies, including Fortune 500 corporations, the DoJ said.

The scheme affected various high-profile companies, such as a major television network, a Silicon Valley tech company, a US media and entertainment company, and others.

Chapman was found to be running a “laptop farm” where she hosted various computers from different US companies.

More than 90 laptops were found at Chapman’s home. The computers were labeled according to company and identity.

Chapman was also caught sending almost 50 laptops and other devices overseas to areas of China that border North Korea.

Chapman has been sentenced to 102 months (over eight years) in prison for “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.”