By Robert McMillan
Four years ago, gig work for North Korean agents turned Christina Chapman's life around. On Thursday, it led to a prison sentence of 102 months, or 8 1/2 years, for the Arizona woman.
Chapman was given the sentence, by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., for operating a "laptop farm" -- a room in her house filled with computers that North Korean scammers used to connect remotely to more than 300 U.S. companies over a two-year period.
Among the companies that the North Koreans -- who were working on behalf of their cash-strapped government -- infiltrated was Nike, according to court filings.
Chapman's work, which helped the former waitress and massage therapist move out of a Minnesota trailer and buy a four-bedroom house in Arizona, is part of what government officials describe as a far-reaching effort by North Korea to take advantage of remote work opportunities in the U.S.
The problem is widespread and over the past year has alarmed cybersecurity experts because the North Koreans don't simply collect paychecks. They steal data and try to extort their former employers, prosecutors have said.
"We've got companies that have given some of these people great employee references," said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. "These workers are writing code for these big American companies."
Chapman's lawyer didn't respond to requests for comment.
Chapman would help the North Koreans fill out employment documents and provide a U.S. address where corporate laptops and other correspondence could be set, according to prosecutors.
In the morning, she would turn on racks of computers covered with Post-its that had information about the companies they belonged to. Then North Koreans would log in remotely through Chapman's farm and work for the companies.
The companies sent paychecks for the workers to Chapman, who took a cut and deposited the rest into bank accounts accessed by the North Korean government. It used proceeds to fund the country's weapons program, prosecutors said.
An army of thousands of these workers is earning North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars each year, according to prosecutors.
Nike was one of Chapman's victims, paying one of her North Korean workers nearly $75,000 in wages over a five-month period between 2021 and 2022.
That wasn't only illegal, "it was a betrayal of the trust that we as an organization extend to every member of our team," Chris Gharst, a director of global investigations with the company, said in a victim impact statement filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington on Tuesday. "The incident required us to expend valuable time and resources on internal investigations to confirm our systems were never breached."
Nike didn't respond to a request for comment.
Other victims included the communications platform Jeenie and the North Carolina staffing agency DataStaff, according to court records. The companies didn't respond to requests for comment.
Chapman's Arizona home was raided by FBI agents in October 2023, shutting down her operation. In February, she pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering and identity theft charges.
Chapman apologized to her victims in a statement filed with the court before her sentencing. She took the job, she said, because it allowed her to be with her mother, who was then sick with cancer.
"The area where we lived didn't provide for a lot of job opportunities that fit what I needed," she said.
Write to Robert McMillan at robert.mcmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 24, 2025 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)
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