Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old girl from Arizona, was sentenced to 102 months in jail after pleading responsible to her involvement in a scheme that enabled North Korean IT staff to infiltrate 309 U.S. corporations.
Chapman was charged in Might 2024, along with Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Didenko, with aggravated identification theft, conspiracy to defraud the US, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering, wire fraud, identification fraud, and financial institution fraud.
Didenko additionally ran a web-based platform often known as UpWorkSell (which was seized by the DOJ) that offered companies permitting North Koreans to make use of false identities whereas looking for distant IT work positions.
Three different international nationals, recognized solely by their aliases (Jiho Han, Haoran Xu, and Chunji Jin) and a part of the identical felony group, had been additionally charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
In keeping with courtroom paperwork, Chapman hosted the North Korean IT staff’ computer systems in her own residence beteen October 2020 and October 2023, making a so-called “laptop computer farm” which was used to make it seem as if the units had been situated in the US.
The North Koreans had been employed as distant software program and software builders with a number of Fortune 500 corporations, together with an aerospace and protection firm, a serious tv community, a Silicon Valley know-how firm, and a high-profile firm.
Because of this scheme, they collected over $17 million in illicit income paid for his or her work, which was shared with Chapman, who processed their paychecks by way of her monetary accounts.
“Chapman operated a ‘laptop computer farm’ the place she acquired and hosted computer systems from the U.S. corporations her house, in order that the businesses would consider the employees had been in the US,” the Justice Division mentioned on Thursday.
“Chapman additionally shipped 49 laptops and different units equipped by U.S. corporations to areas abroad, together with a number of shipments to a metropolis in China on the border with North Korea. Greater than 90 laptops had been seized from Chapman’s house following the execution of a search warrant in October 2023.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Division of the Treasury’s Workplace of International Belongings Management (OFAC) additionally sanctioned a North Korean entrance firm and three related people who had been linked to fraudulent data know-how (IT) employee schemes.
In latest weeks, the Division of Justice disrupted an in depth community of people who helped North Korean staff receive distant jobs at U.S. corporations, whereas the FBI up to date its steerage for U.S. companies.
Beforehand, the US launched a number of joint advisories with international companions warning of North Korean IT employee schemes and sanctioned a number of organizations concerned in North Korea’s IT employee income technology schemes.
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