A woman from Arizona has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison in the Federal Prison to help North Korea agents sneak into cryptocurrencies and technology in the United States using stolen identities and fraudulent documents.
According to Thursday advertisement By the US Public Prosecutor’s Office in the province of Colombia, Christina Mary Chapman was convicted of fraud, stolen identity, and money laundering. She was sentenced to 102 months in prison, or about 8.5 years in prison.
Prosecutors said that Chapman has worked with activists linked to the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) to obtain IT positions in more than 300 US -based companies. North Korean workers have formed American citizens, and the plan has made more than $ 17 million of illegal revenues.
Chapman acknowledged that he was guilty on February 11. In addition to the prison sentence, Chapman was ordered to provide three years of supervision release, lost more than 284,000 dollars in funds related to the scheme and pay nearly $ 177,000 in response.
DPRK infiltration is an increased direction
The case is one of the largest plans for information technology workers in the DPRK that the US Department of Justice is charged. The theft of 68 American identities and fraud included 309 American companies and two international companies.
However, this is far from a rare occurrence. Modern reports indicate that four members of North Korea have created an American encryption and a Serbian virtual symbolic company by offering them as remote workers, using stolen and coils identities, The theft of more than 900,000 dollars.
Earlier this month, the US Treasury approved two people and four entities involved in what it says North Korea’s IT episode It would infiltrate the encryption companies, with the aim of exploiting them. The US Treasury explained at X mail As North Korea uses the illegal money to finance the weapons program for comprehensive destruction.
Last month, infiltrators who were pretending to be legitimate information technology workers (IT) The theft of nearly one million dollars in the encrypted currency.
In early April, the Google That Intelligence Group (GTIG), Jimmy Coleer, warned that DPRK infiltrators were also It was found in encryption companies in the United Kingdom. According to November 2024 reports, North Korean infiltrators managed “Hundreds” infiltration of large and multinationals IT companies.
Related to: Researchers thwart 10 million dollars Defi Backdooor with thousands of smart contracts
Legal consequences for American companies?
Some legal experts warn that companies that employ fraudulent workers can bear responsibility under the US Penal Code, even if they are not aware of the real identities of workers. The American lawyer, who focuses on encryption Aaron Bergman, told Cointelegraph that US sanctions systems are “very wide and impose a” strict responsibility “system. “Anyone who participates in the approval activity, knowing or not, is technically guilty.”
Niko Demchank, President of Crypto Compliance Compliance Amlbot, also told CointeleGraph that promoting developers residing in Democratic Korea “is generally a violation of the US Treasury to combat foreign assets (OFAC).
He said that companies participating in such activities risk civil penalties, criminal fines, reputable damages, secondary penalties, violations of banking services or export monitoring. He added that the use of actors in DPRK for stolen identities is not an excuse:
“If DPRK developers use fake or stolen identities to bypass compliance checks for company sanctions and receive payments, companies still have legal problem under the Offac regulations.”
However, Bogman said, OFAC is unlikely to follow the companies that rented unknown fraudulent workers. “However, he said that the situation changes” if the scope of work is very sensitive and they did not notice the reasonable identity verification procedures. “
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