Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old lady from Arizona, has been sentenced to 102 months after pleading responsible to a scheme that allowed North Korean IT staff to interrupt into 309 US companies.
Chapman was charged in Might 2024 with Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Dedenko with aggravated id theft, conspiracy to fraud the US, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering, wire fraud, id fraud and financial institution fraud.
Didenko additionally ran a web-based platform known as Upworksell (seized by the DOJ) to permit North Koreans to make use of their false id whereas trying to find distant IT work positions.
Three different foreigners identified solely to a part of the identical prison group as their alias (Jiho Han, Haoran Xu, and Chunji Jin) had been additionally accused of conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
In response to court docket paperwork, Chapman hosted computer systems for North Korean IT staff at his house in October 2020 and October 2023, creating what is known as a “laptop computer farm.”
North Korea was employed as a distant software program and utility developer for a number of Fortune 500 corporations, together with aerospace and protection corporations, main tv networks, Silicon Valley know-how corporations and well-known corporations.
Because of this scheme, they’ve raised greater than $17 million in unlawful earnings for his or her work. This was shared with Chapman, who processed her paycheck by way of her monetary account.
“Chapman runs a ‘laptop computer farm’ the place she obtained and hosted computer systems from a US firm at house, so companies will imagine staff are within the US,” the Justice Division stated Thursday.
“Chapman additionally shipped 49 laptops and different units equipped by US corporations to abroad areas, together with a number of shipments to Chinese language cities on the border with North Korea. Greater than 90 laptops had been seized from Chapman’s house after the execution of a search warrant in October 2023.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) additionally permitted North Korean front-facing corporations and three associated people related to the fraudulent data know-how (IT) employee scheme.
In current weeks, the Division of Justice has disrupted the in depth community of people who helped North Korean staff get distant jobs at US corporations, and the FBI has up to date their steering for US corporations.
Beforehand, the US has issued a number of joint suggestions with international companions who’ve warned of the North Korean IT Employee scheme and permitted a number of organizations concerned within the income era scheme for North Korean IT Staff.
