Arizona Woman Sentenced for Role in North Korean Cybercrime Scheme

Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old resident of Arizona, has received a sentence of over eight years for participating in a scheme that enabled North Korean spies to infiltrate 309 U.S. businesses by posing as IT workers. She pleaded guilty to several charges, including aggravated identity theft and conspiracy related to fraud and money laundering.

According to court documents, from October 2020 to October 2023, Chapman ran a so-called “laptop farm” from her home, hosting computers that made it appear as if North Korean IT workers were based in the United States. This scheme has allowed North Korean workers to earn over $17 million through illegal means, which was shared with Chapman. The Justice Department stated that her operation misled U.S. companies about the workers’ actual locations.

Chapman was indicted in May along with Oleksandr Dedenko, a Ukrainian national who managed an online platform that facilitated North Koreans using false identities to find remote IT jobs. Additionally, three other individuals associated with the same criminal network have been named, all of whom face similar conspiracy charges.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has also taken action against North Korean front companies linked to this fraudulent IT worker scheme. Recently, the Department of Justice has been working to dismantle the expansive network that enabled North Koreans to secure remote positions with U.S. companies, prompting the FBI to update its guidance for those firms.