Christina Marie Chapman, a 48-year-old woman from Litchfield Park,  pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court to charges related to a scheme that generated over $17 million in illicit revenue, benefiting both herself and  the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

 According to court documents, Chapman admitted to conspiring with overseas IT workers who posed as U.S. citizens to obtain remote IT positions at  U.S. companies between October 2020 and October 2023. The workers, using stolen U.S. identities, gained access to internal systems at major corporations, including Fortune 500 companies.

Chapman set up a “laptop farm” in her Litchfield Park home, receiving and hosting computers from these companies to create the illusion that the workers were in the U.S. This allowed them to perform work remotely while funneling funds abroad.

The scheme resulted in more than $17.1 million being paid to Chapman’s overseas IT workers with much of the income falsely reported to the IRS and Social Security Administration under the names of stolen U.S. identities.

The operation affected more than 300 U.S. companies and compromised over 70 U.S. identities.

False information was submitted to the Department of Homeland Security on more than 100 occasions, and more than 70 individuals had false tax liabilities created in their names.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI Counterintelligence Division, the FBI Phoenix Field Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office.

Chapman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

Sentencing is set for June 16, with a joint recommendation for a sentence of 94 to 111 months in federal prison. A judge will determine the final sentence.

Visit justice.gov for more information.