An Arizona woman helped remote IT workers from North Korea get hired in a scheme that earned more than $17 million for that country, the US Justice Department announced. Many of the workers were placed through staffing firms or other contracting organizations.

Workers posed as US citizens and residents and took remote IT jobs at more than 300 US companies.

The defendant, Christina Marie Chapman, 48, of Litchfield Park, Arizona, pleaded guilty Feb. 11 in federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

With her pleas agreement, attorneys will ask that the judge give Chapman 94 to 111 months in prison when sentencing takes place in June.

The departments said that Chapman, who is a US citizen, conspired with IT workers from October 2020 to October 2023 to steal the identities of US nationals and use them to apply for remote IT jobs. Chapman also hosted computers at her home, creating a “laptop farm” so firms believed they were using workers in the US.

Much of the income from the workers was falsely reported to the IRS and Social Security Administration in the names of actual US individuals whose identities had been stolen. The identities of more than 70 people were compromised.