LITCHFIELD PARK, AZ (AZFamily) — A Litchfield Park woman has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for her role in helping the North Koreans obtain remote tech jobs, helping generate $17 million in illegal funds for herself and the regime.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Christina Marie Chapman, 50, was sentenced Thursday to 102 months after pleading guilty to multiple felonies, including committing wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
The DOJ says Christina Chapman organized and stored U.S. company laptops in her home, and included notes identifying the U.S. company and identity associated with each laptop.(U.S. Department of Justice)
As part of her sentence, she must also serve three years of supervised release, pay a judgment of $176,850 and forfeit $284,555 that was to be paid to North Korea.
Prosecutors say Chapman, who is an American citizen, worked in a scheme to help overseas IT workers who posed as U.S. citizens and residents and ended up working in remote IT jobs. In total, 309 U.S. businesses and two international workplaces were defrauded, the feds said.
The DOJ states that more than 90 laptops were seized from Chapman’s home during a search warrant in October 2023.
“North Korea is not just a threat to the homeland from afar. It is an enemy within. It is perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies, and American banks. It is a threat to Main Street in every sense of the word,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia. “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. Corporations failing to verify virtual employees pose a security risk for all. You are the first line of defense against the North Korean threat.”
Federal officials say this is one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes charged by the Department of Justice.
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