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 employees to infiltrate 309 U.S. firms.
Chapman was charged in Could 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.
Additionally Diden ran a web-based platform generally known as UpWorkSell (which was seized by the DOJ) that supplied providers permitting North Koreans to make use of false identities whereas looking for distant IT work positions.
Three different overseas 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 line with court docket paperworkChapman hosted the North Korean IT employees’ 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 gadgets had been situated in the US.
The North Koreans had been employed as distant software program and utility builders with a number of Fortune 500 firms, together with an aerospace and protection firm, a significant tv community, a Silicon Valley know-how firm, and a high-profile firm.
On account 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 means of her monetary accounts.
“Chapman operated a ‘laptop computer farm’ the place she acquired and hosted computer systems from the U.S. firms her residence, in order that the businesses would imagine the employees had been in the US,” the Justice Division stated on Thursday.
“Chapman additionally shipped 49 laptops and different gadgets equipped by U.S. firms to places 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 residence following the execution of a search warrant in October 2023.”
On Thursday, the U.S. Division of the Treasury’s Workplace of Overseas 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 current weeks, the Division of Justice disrupted an in depth community of people who helped North Korean employees acquire distant jobs at U.S. firms, whereas the FBI up to date its steering for U.S. companies.
Beforehand, the US launched a number of joint advisories with overseas companions warning of North Korean IT employee schemes and sanctioned a number of organizations concerned in North Korea’s IT employee income era schemes.
Comprise rising threats in actual time – earlier than they influence your small business.
Learn the way cloud detection and response (CDR) provides safety groups the sting they want on this sensible, no-nonsense information.
