US-American woman charged with fraud scheme involving IT jobs for North Koreans

The US Department of Justice has charged Christina Marie C. from Arizona with a fraud scheme in which she helped North Korean IT employees obtain home office jobs at US companies. She used identity theft, document forgery and a laptop farm to simulate the employees' residence in the USA.

This helped North Korea to finance its weapons programs. The 49-year-old C. had made at least 6.8 million US dollars with her fraud scheme, which she had passed on to North Korea's munitions industry department. This department is involved in important aspects of the country's weapons programs, including missile development, the indictment states.

Part of the fraud involved compromising more than 60 people living in the US, whose personal information was used to provide the North Koreans with IT positions at more than 300 companies. The companies, according to the indictment, include one of the five major television networks, a high-profile Silicon Valley technology company, an aircraft and defense manufacturer, a famous American automobile manufacturer, a high-end retail chain and one of the world's best-known media and entertainment companies, all Fortune 500 companies.

Laptop farm as an alleged home office

In addition, C. allegedly operated a laptop farm at one of her residences to fool employers into believing that employees were located within the United States. By using proxy and VPN connections, the North Koreans were thus able to create the impression that they were working with US-based IP addresses. C. had also received wages and salaries, some in her own bank accounts.

The prosecutors accuse the woman of planning this system four years ago together with three North Korean IT employees. In March 2020, C. was contacted on the business network LinkedIn and invited to become the "US face" of the company. In the second half of the year, the North Koreans collected instructions and information to train their compatriots to write effective cover letters and CVs and to forge residence permits.

A Ukrainian also faces a long prison sentence

In addition to C., a Ukrainian has also been charged with similar offenses. The 27-year-old Oleksandr D. from Kiev is accused of creating fake accounts on US job boards and money senders over several years and selling them to foreign IT employees, some of whom are said to have come from North Korea. Some of these individuals also worked with C., according to the US Department of Justice.

D. was arrested in Poland at the request of the US in early May and the United States is now working on extradition. C. was arrested this week at her home in Arizona. The Ukrainian faces up to 67.5 years in prison, while the US American faces a maximum of 97.5 years.

(fds)