Things didn’t seem good for the start of the American electric car (EV). Fisker in its final days, but new reports claim it had a North Korean spy on its books – whose paychecks were allegedly earmarked for the country’s ballistic missile projects.
The Danish publication reports this The engineer has reported, and Fisker wasn’t the only American company targeted and effectively defrauded.
According to The engineerwho had access to US legal documents, Fisker employed an outside IT worker known as Kou Thao, whose home address was in Arizona.
However, the home’s resident was actually a now 49-year-old woman named Christina Chapman, who the FBI alleges helped North Korean nationals — like Mr. Thao — use her home address and IP address to pull off their scam feed.
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Ms. Chapman, the FBI alleges, ran and facilitated a “laptop farm” where North Korean IT workers could use her IP address to log into the computers to work for American companies such as Fisker, despite being in Russia or China.
Fisker wasn’t the only company targeted since Ms Chapman reportedly began participating in the scam in 2020, while Mr Thao joined the EV brand in late 2022.
Mr. Thao and the others reported that 18 North Korean agents would “perform work” for the companies that employed them, with Ms. Chapman cashing their paychecks, which would be funneled back to North Korea.
An indictment against Ms Chapman and at least three North Korean operatives alleges that the IT employees are “often subordinate” to North Korea’s Ministry of Munitions Industry, which is responsible for ballistic missile development, weapons production and research and development programs.
Mr. Thao was employed by Fisker for just 11 months and was fired after the FBI and other U.S. government agencies tipped off the EV maker about the scam.
It is not known how much Fisker paid the North Korean agent before he was released, but it is one of at least 300 companies that fell victim to the scam – which is reportedly still ongoing.
Unfortunately for Fisker, the company’s fortunes did not end when Mr. Thao was fired.
After funding dried up following the launch of its long-delayed Ocean electric SUV, Fisker teetered near bankruptcy in the early months of 2024 before finally filing its Chapter 11 documents in June.
Fisker was founded in September 2016, just three years after the previous automaker of eponymous founder and former BMW designer Henrik Fisker, Fisker Automotive, filed for bankruptcy.
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Fisker founder and CEO, Henrik Fisker
Unlike the original car company Fisker, which launched one of the world’s first plug-in hybrids with its Karma sedan, the new Fisker brand had aimed to be an exclusively electric company.
While EV giants like Tesla use their own factories to build their vehicles, Fisker contracted manufacturing giant Magna International to produce its Ocean SUV in Austria, which was unveiled in November 2021 with deliveries starting in June 2023.
However, the wheels soon began to come off the venture, with Fisker unable to move the ocean in any meaningful volume, which was followed by a scale back in production.
During the ensuing downward spiral, Fisker also slashed prices on the Ocean, though American buyers were hesitant to buy the electric SUV – no doubt deterred by concerns about a lack of after-sales support if the company’s problems continued.
Fisker’s Austrian division in May “voluntarily applied to open restructuring proceedings through self-administration,” a process similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US.
To add salt to the wound of Fisker Ocean’s owners, a recall of more than 18,000 units was announced in the hours leading up to the bankruptcy filing.
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