Maryland Man Sentenced for Scheme Allowing Foreign Access to US Gov’t Systems
Udumbara
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Several of the defrauded companies had placed Vong on projects for several U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As a result, the agencies had unknowingly allowed the defendant’s coconspirators in China access to “sensitive government systems,” prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman sentenced Vong to 15 months in prison for his role in the wire fraud scheme. Following the prison term, Vong will serve three years of supervised release, including six months of home confinement.
Jimmy Paul, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, said that Vong is the latest individual to be “held accountable for using false identities on behalf of North Korea to infiltrate American companies,” according to a Dec. 4 statement.
Citing a 2024 report by the United Nations Panel of Experts, the court document noted that there were about 3,000 North Korean IT workers overseas and another 1,000 more in North Korea, with most of the $250 million to $600 million in generated income going to Pyongyang.
“There is strong evidence that Mr. Vong’s co-conspirators were, in fact, working for the North Korean government,” the prosecutors wrote.
Vong used company-issued laptops and installed remote-access software on them, creating what prosecutors described as a “laptop farm” that allowed his coconspirators to carry out the necessary tasks.
FBI agents executed a search warrant of her residence in Bowie on May 13 last year, and found five laptops, four cellphones, and $13,715 in U.S. currency.
“As a result of the fraudulent scheme, Mr. Vong received close to $1 million in salary payments for IT work that he did not perform,” prosecutors wrote.
“More troublingly, Mr. Vong transmitted roughly 70-80% of the money earned to his North Korean co-conspirators and granted them access to sensitive government systems.”
The court document identified one of Vong’s coconspirators as “John Doe,” also known as “William James,” an individual living in Shenyang, the capital of northeastern China’s Liaoning Province that borders North Korea.
Vong told prosecutors that he met Doe on an online gaming platform and later agreed to participate in the fraud scheme.
On two occasions, Vong said that he mailed company-issued laptops to Doe in China, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors recommended that the judge sentence Vong to 30 months in prison.
“There is a strong need for general deterrence,” prosecutors wrote.
“A sentence that is too lenient would convey the wrong message to both North Korean IT workers and current and future U.S.-based facilitators that this conduct is tolerated in the U.S. and worth the risk of being caught by U.S. law enforcement.”
Vong’s lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Chapman was also accused of running a “laptop farm,” and she and her coconspirators earned more than $17 million from the scheme.
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