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Наталя ХандусенкоHot News
5 August 2025, 13:38
2025-08-05
UPD. American woman to go to prison for remote work scam for North Korean IT workers and "laptop farm" at home
In the spring of 2024, an American woman and a Ukrainian man were arrested in the United States for helping North Korean IT workers get remote work at over 300 American companies, including Fortune 500 companies.
Last week, the court sentenced the woman to prison and a fine. Although the evidence suggests that the woman was aware of the illegality of her actions, she says that she is “not the kind of person who wants to harm anyone.”
In the spring of 2024, an American woman and a Ukrainian man were arrested in the United States for helping North Korean IT workers get remote work at over 300 American companies, including Fortune 500 companies.
Last week, the court sentenced the woman to prison and a fine. Although the evidence suggests that the woman was aware of the illegality of her actions, she says that she is “not the kind of person who wants to harm anyone.”
The US Department of Justice said the elaborate scheme was designed to generate revenue for North Korea in violation of international sanctions. The money involved was at least $6.8 million. The North Koreans were linked to North Korea's Munitions Industry Department, which oversees ballistic missile development, weapons production and research programs. The North also allegedly received classified information stolen by co-conspirators, Reuters reports.
Charges have been filed against Christina Marie Chapman, 49, of Litchfield Park, Arizona; Ukrainian Oleksandr Didenko, 27, of Kyiv; and three other foreign nationals.
Didenko was arrested on May 7 by Polish authorities at the request of the United States. Chapman was arrested on May 15. Rewards of up to $5 million were announced for the other participants, who used the pseudonyms Jiho Han, Haoran Xu and Chunji Jin, Zhonghua and Venechor S.
Didenko was accused of creating fake accounts on U.S. IT job search platforms and selling them to foreign IT professionals, some of whom were North Korean. The report says the foreign IT professionals who used Didenko's services also worked with Chapman. Didenko's Internet domain, upworksell.com, was taken down by the Justice Department on Thursday.
The FBI raided American "laptop farms" - places where numerous laptops for foreign IT workers were stored.
Through these farms, including one Chapman set up at her home, American intermediaries entered the computer networks of American companies and allowed foreign IT specialists to remotely access laptops using American IP addresses to create the impression that they were in the United States.
North Korea is under UN sanctions aimed at cutting funding for its missile and nuclear programs, and experts say it has sought to profit through illicit means, including through IT workers.
UPDATED. 05.08.2025 13:00
Last week, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Chapman to more than 8 years in prison; forfeiture of $284,000 that was to be paid to the North Koreans; and a fine of $176,000.
In a letter to the court before sentencing, Chapman thanked the FBI for the arrest because she had "been trying to escape from the guys she worked with for some time, but didn't know how to do it."
“There weren’t many job opportunities in the area where we lived that would have suited me,” the woman wrote. “To the people who were harmed, I offer my sincerest apologies. I’m not the type of person who would want to hurt anyone, so knowing that I was part of a company that hurt people just makes me sad.”
However, case documents show that Chapman understood the illegality of her activities.
"I hope you find other people to do your I-9 paperwork in person. These are federal documents. I can send them to you, but have someone else do all the paperwork. I could go to federal prison for forging federal documents," Chapman wrote to her accomplices.
Chapman received an offer to help foreign IT workers get remote work on LinkedIn in March 2020. About 6 months after this message, the woman began managing what law enforcement officers call "laptop farms."
According to court documents, in addition to hosting computers, she helped North Koreans impersonate U.S. citizens by verifying stolen personal information; shipped some laptops overseas; logged into computers so foreign workers could connect remotely; and collected salaries and transferred money to workers.
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