A man in Maryland has been sentenced to a 15-month prison sentence and three years of supervised release after it was revealed that he was covertly helping North Korea place IT workers inside US companies.
For three years, Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong used false credentials to secure jobs with at least 13 US companies. These employers collectively paid him more than $970,000 for software development work that was actually performed by an overseas co-conspirator.
North Koreans Gained Access to Sensitive US Systems
According to court documents, Vong conspired with others, including John Doe, also known as William James, a foreign national living in Shenyang, China. Their plan involved hiring Vong as a remote software developer.
Two years prior, Vong participated in an online job interview with the CEO of a Virginia-based company. He verified his identity and citizenship by presenting his Maryland driver’s license and US passport.
Following the interview, the company hired Vong and assigned him to work on a contract for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This contract involved a specific software application used by various US government agencies to manage sensitive information pertaining to national defense matters.
The company provided Vong with a laptop for his employment. The FAA also authorized Vong to receive a Personal Identity Verification card, granting him access to government facilities and systems. Vong installed remote access software on the laptop, which facilitated Doe’s access to it and concealed Doe's location in China.
The company paid Vong over $28,000 in wages for work he performed. Portions of these wages were subsequently sent overseas to Doe and other conspirators. Additionally, Vong permitted Doe and others to utilize his computer access credentials to conduct the remote software development work and receive payment for it.
Vong's resume falsely claimed he possessed a Bachelor of Science degree and 16 years of experience as a software developer. However, Vong did not hold a college degree or have any experience in software development.
Court documents reveal that Vong was aware Doe was located near North Korea. Communications from Doe indicate he is likely a North Korean national working to generate revenue for the North Korean government. The court has reason to believe that the conspirators gained unauthorized access to sensitive government systems through this scheme.
North Korea Increases Illicit Cyber Operations
Employment infiltration is one of several revenue streams supporting North Korea’s cyber operations. The US has implemented measures to counter this infiltration campaign, including nationwide efforts launched in June to dismantle "laptop farms." These operations, based in US homes, enable overseas North Korean IT workers to disguise their true locations by remotely controlling laptops issued by American companies to supposedly US-based employees.
"North Korea remains intent on funding its weapons programs by defrauding U.S. companies and exploiting American victims of identity theft, but the FBI is equally intent on disrupting this massive campaign and bringing its perpetrators to justice," stated Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division.
Last year, a federal court in St. Louis indicted 14 North Koreans for a long-running scheme to extort US companies and funnel money to Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
In addition to infiltration, North Koreans engage in fraudulent schemes by gaining access to companies holding cryptocurrency through employment and subsequently hacking their wallets.
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the country’s crypto-hacking groups stole approximately $2 billion in 2025 alone. This brought the total stolen digital assets in recent years by the regime to over $6 billion. The funds, derived from hacks including those of crypto exchanges Bybit and Upbit, finance North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, North Korea is allegedly using banned Nvidia GPUs to enhance its crypto theft schemes. Recent analysis by researchers has revealed that the country has accumulated research on artificial intelligence since the late 1990s, with a focus on pattern recognition, speech processing, and data optimization.