An Arizona woman has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for her role in a complex fraud scheme. Christina Marie Chapman, 50, from Litchfield Park, helped North Korean workers get remote jobs at U.S. companies by using fake American identities. The scheme ran from October 2020 to October 2023 and generated more than $17 million.
Chapman was sentenced to 102 months in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty in February. She faced charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder money. Money laundering through technology has become increasingly sophisticated, with some experts even suggesting Trump’s NFT trading cards could be a laundering scheme. Anyway, the case was handled in the District of Columbia, where several other people have been charged for similar schemes involving North Korean workers.
Matthew R. Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said Chapman had “made the wrong calculation: short term personal gains that inflict harm on our citizens and support a foreign adversary.” The North Korean government is under strict U.S. and United Nations sanctions, which prevent American companies from doing business with its citizens.
How the laptop farm operation worked
Chapman’s main job was to run what authorities called a “laptop farm” from her home. She received dozens of computers and other equipment that U.S. companies sent to her address. This practice is part of a much larger North Korean scheme where remote IT workers might be infiltrating American companies. The companies thought the work was being done inside the United States, but the equipment was actually being used by North Korean workers overseas.
Arizona Woman Sentenced for $17M Information Technology Worker Fraud Scheme that Generated Revenue for North Korea https://t.co/6VzgUEFgbp @FBIPhoenix pic.twitter.com/M1cifZyEI5
— FBI (@FBI) July 24, 2025
Sometimes Chapman sent the work equipment to other locations, most often to Dandong, China, which is on the North Korean border. Other times she kept the equipment in her home. She installed special software on the computers that allowed people in other countries to control them remotely. This made it look like the work was happening in Arizona when it was really being done elsewhere.
More than 300 U.S. companies hired these North Korean workers for IT jobs without knowing their real identities. The victims included major businesses like a top-five television network, a Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace manufacturer, an American car maker, a luxury retail store, and a U.S. media and entertainment company. At least 68 Americans had their identities stolen as part of this scheme. Identity theft and fraud can have devastating personal consequences, similar to other high-profile cases like Jen Shah’s fraud scheme that targeted vulnerable individuals.
The money trail and personal consequences
Chapman received $176,850 for her part in the operation. The wages earned by the North Korean workers were sent to her bank account and she forwarded most of the money to North Korea’s government, led by Kim Jong Un. U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss ordered Chapman to pay back what she earned and give up an additional $284,556 that had not yet been paid to the North Koreans.
Chapman also helped the scheme in other ways. Her name, address, and debit card were used to sign up with a background-check company. This allowed her partners in crime to buy information they needed to pretend to be American citizens. She also mailed fake documents to support the fraud.
According to her lawyers, Chapman had a difficult childhood with repeated physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. She lacked basic life skills and became her mother’s caregiver after a cancer diagnosis. She joined a computer science training program and was soon recruited for this illegal job. Her attorneys said she continued with the scheme even after learning it was illegal because she was finally financially stable and could support her mother, who died in 2023. In a letter to the judge, Chapman said she felt “deeply ashamed” and thanked the FBI for helping her get away from the people she was working with.
