Laptop farmer behind $17M North Korean IT worker scam locked up for 8.5 years

An Arizona woman who ran a laptop farm from her home - helping North Korean IT operatives pose as US-based remote workers - has been sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars for her role in a $17 million fraud that hit more than 300 American companies. After her arrest in May 2024, 50-year-old Christina Marie Chapman …

[Michael Hoffmann]

And once again...

the potential rewards seem in no way commensurate with the risk.

Years in jail for a few hundred thou? NFW!

What happened to the millions stashed away in Swiss bank accounts for the day you're released?

Not that I'd trust the Norks to honour their side of the bargain. That's the other issue.

[katrinab]

Sorry, but "laptop farmer" just gives me images of some crazy man out in a field planting laptop seeds.

[David 132]

> planting laptop seeds

Acorns?

Kernels?

Or on the organic, artisan farms, Apple seeds?

[goblinski]

Pinebook ?

SeedStudio ?

Pepper Pad ?

LimeBook Z9 ?

Pinebook Pro ?

Raspberry, Banana, Mango, Orange Pi ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Laptop Farm

Is that a bit like a Solar farm, where the fields are full of little solar panels that are nourished and watered until they grow and one day harvested and sold at the market?

There seems to be quite a few of them around these days.

[clyde666]

Fraud?

Where's the fraud element in this?

Nowhere does the story say that the work contracted and paid for was not done. That would be fraud.

The story says the work was done by people masquerading under different identities. That's not necessarily fraud, just a bit underhand.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fraud?

Hmm. Think your definition of fraud needs a rethink. Try claiming benefits from the government with a fake identity, see what you get charged with and report back.

[goblinski]

Re: Fraud?

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

So you're a writer, not a reader ?

[Arboreal Astronaut]

Re: Fraud?

U.S. sanctions are part of U.S. law, so presumably all sorts of conspiracy/fraud/etc types of charges can attach themselves to situations where you're conspiring to break U.S. sanctions, tricking someone into unknowingly breaking U.S. sanctions or helping you break them, and so on.

Admittedly, U.S. sanctions are deeply *stupid* laws, the primary vector for what Wired recently described as "the enshittification of American power".

But there's no law requiring that laws must be rational or sensible, so there you have it.

[kmorwath]

Another example of the abysmal state of US civil registry...

... the XVIII century is over - time to enter the XXI. Thinking what was OK 250 years ago is still OK, it's plainly silly. Especially from the country that made the innovations that in turn made impersonating others far, far easier.

But the new loons at the helm now will probably make it even easier, since it can be useful to make more money.

[DJV]

"if you think your firm doesn't have a fake IT worker problem, you're not paying attention"

I don't think my firm has a fake IT worker problem as I'm self-employed.

However, I do sometimes have suspicions about my left elbow...

[Anonymous Coward]

My thoughts entirely though sometime my left elbow doesn't know what my right elbow is up to.

I run a company of 3. And the IT side tends to fall into my lap. I think i need to be a bit suspicious about myself.

The whole thing actually smacks of poor HR practices and due diligence of the companies that employed someone without actually meeting them, interviewing them and doing background security and identity checks. Maybe not always necessary for a short term contract, but then are they really an employee?