BOWIE, Md. — A Maryland man is facing federal wire fraud charges in connection to his alleged involvement with an espionage ring helping to funnel U.S. cash to North Korea. Investigators claim it’s part of a wide reaching North Korean scheme to get around international sanctions and fund nuclear weapons programs.
Minh Phuong Vong, 39, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud after allegedly posing as a software developer to gain access to a national defense government contracting position.
Vong, a high school graduate and licensed nail technician at Allure Nail Spa in Bowie, told investigators he was approached by a person through a cellphone video game app, offering him a way to make easy money. He is accused of accepting the offer, then following instructions to create a fake resume and background to get hired as a software developer at a U.S. IT contractor working remotely on national defense jobs.
After getting hired, he picked up a work ID and computer and allegedly sent them to China. That’s where an unidentified North Korean man living in China used the ID and computer to pose as Vong and access the contractor’s networks and U.S. defense information related to managing aviation assets around the world.
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Vong was fired by the contractor when the company became suspicious, and then he was arrested in Bowie Thursday. The North Korean man has not yet been caught.
Vong was among those swept up in a major investigation of North Korean scheme to fund its weapons program.
According to investigators, North Korea has dispatched thousands of skilled IT workers to live abroad, primarily in China and Russia, with the aim of deceiving U.S. and other businesses worldwide into hiring them as freelance IT workers, to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. The Justice Department says this has happened at more than 300 U.S. companies.
“Today’s announcement reveals the complex web of deception and facilitators that is central to the North Korean regime’s schemes to evade international sanctions to finance its weapons program,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The disruptions announced today represent a focused and continuing effort to dismantle these illicit networks and thereby prevent North Korean IT workers from victimizing unwitting U.S. companies. Through such sustained campaigns against this threat, the Department will continue to enhance our collective national security and cybersecurity.”
U.S. investigators say the IT workers have been known to individually earn up to $300,000 annually, generating hundreds of millions of dollars collectively each year, on behalf of designated entities, such as the North Korean Ministry of Defense and others directly involved in the DPRK’s UN-prohibited WMD programs.
“The FBI and its partners are committed to leveraging everything at our disposal to disrupt North Korean IT workers from subverting the rule of law in order to fund the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction program,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “We will continue our work of maintaining order in the cyber space and preventing bad actors from taking advantage of it for their strategic geopolitical objectives.”
If convicted, Vong faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge.
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