- Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong, 40, of Bowie, Md., will be sentenced in August after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud this month. Vong’s guilty plea is the latest intrigue in what authorities say is a vast fake IT worker scheme that funds North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. Authorities alleged Vong essentially rented out his U.S. identity to developers based in China who used it to get more than a dozen remote tech jobs, some of which involved contract work for sensitive government agencies.
A 40-year-old Maryland man is facing decades in prison after he allegedly worked with foreign nationals in China to get remote work IT jobs with at least 13 different U.S. companies between 2021 and 2024. The jobs paid him more than $970,000 in salary for software development tasks that were actually performed by operatives authorities allege are North Korean and working out of a post in Shenyang, China, according to the Department of Justice.
