A woman in Arizona was sentenced Thursday to more than eight years in prison for hosting a so-called laptop farm that enabled North Korean cyber operatives to pose as remote IT workers at more than 300 U.S. companies.
The sentence is one of the largest handed down to a U.S. national for their role in the scheme, which has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for the North Korean regime.
Christina Chapman was sentenced in the U.S. District Court after pleading guilty earlier this year in Washington, D.C., to charges including wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering. Chapman was also ordered to turn over around $284,000 in funds earned by these North Koreans and pay an additional fine of more than $175,000.
Chapman was involved in an operation that, according to the Justice Department, made in total more than $17 million for the North Korean regime between 2020 and 2023. Chapman oversaw at least 90 laptops at her home sent by unsuspecting U.S. firms that were duped into hiring North Koreans as remote employees.
These North Korean nationals used stolen identities of real U.S. citizens in carrying out the scheme.
While the companies impacted by Chapman's actions have not been named, those that inadvertently hired North Koreans included a car-maker, Silicon Valley tech company, a U.S. media group and an aerospace group, among other Fortune 500 companies.
“The call is coming from inside the house,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said in a statement Thursday. “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.”
The sentencing of Chapman came a month after the Justice Department announced the seizure of hundreds of accounts, websites and laptops linked to the widespread North Korean IT workers scheme. Chapman is not the only U.S. citizen to host laptop farms to support the effort, and the DOJ found that individuals in China and the United Arab Emirates were also involved in supporting these schemes.
Comments