Arizona woman sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for helping North Korean IT workers defraud $17 million

PANews reported on July 26 that according to the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice, an Arizona woman (Christina Marie Chapman) was sentenced to 102 months in prison for participating in a fraud scheme. The scheme assisted North Korean information technology (IT) workers to impersonate U.S. citizens and residents to obtain remote IT positions at more than 300 U.S. companies. The scheme brought Chapman and North Korea more than $17 million in illegal income. In addition to the 102-month prison sentence, a U.S. district court judge ordered Chapman to accept three years of supervised release and to forfeit $284,555.92 originally scheduled to be paid to North Koreans and pay a judgment of $176,850.

The case is one of the largest IT employee fraud cases in North Korea charged by the Department of Justice. A total of 68 American victims' identities were stolen, and 309 U.S. companies and 2 international companies were defrauded. According to court documents, North Korea has sent thousands of highly skilled IT employees around the world (including the United States) to obtain remote work using false, stolen or borrowed American identities. To circumvent controls put in place by U.S. companies to prevent the illegal hiring of overseas IT workers, North Korean IT workers would seek help from collaborators in the United States. Chapman helped North Korean IT workers obtain jobs at 309 U.S. companies, including Fortune 500 companies. Affected companies included a top five major television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace manufacturer, a U.S. automaker, a luxury retail store, and a U.S. media and entertainment company.