Maryland man sentenced to 15 months in prison for assisting North Korea in infiltrating U.S. tech companies

Jinse Finance reported that Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong, a 40-year-old man from Maryland, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised release for assisting North Korean agents secretly embedded within U.S. technology companies. Between 2021 and 2024, Vong used false identification to secure software development positions at at least 13 U.S. companies, which paid him over $970,000 in salaries, while the actual work was performed remotely by North Korean agents based in China. Some companies even subcontracted Vong's services to U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), resulting in these agents gaining unauthorized access to sensitive government systems.