Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong, a 40-year-old man from Bowie, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was part of a years-long scheme that tricked U.S. companies and even federal agencies into hiring him for remote software development jobs. The shocking part? He wasn’t the one doing the work—someone in China was.
Vong worked with an unknown individual going by the name “John Doe,” also known as William James, who lived in Shenyang, China. Together, they fooled companies into thinking Vong was a qualified software developer. In reality, Vong had no college degree or any real experience in software development. But that didn’t stop him and his partner from building fake resumes filled with false education and job history.
One major example happened in January 2023. John Doe submitted a fake resume in Vong’s name to a technology company based in Virginia. The resume claimed Vong had a Bachelor of Science degree and 16 years of experience. The job required U.S. citizenship because the work was tied to government contracts. To make the lie more believable, Vong showed his real U.S. passport and Maryland driver’s license during a video interview. After the interview, he was hired and given access to a highly sensitive software project for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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Secret Work from China Using U.S. Credentials
Once he got the job, Vong was issued a government laptop and was even cleared to receive a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card. This allowed him to access government systems and facilities. But instead of doing the job himself, he .installed remote access software on the laptop. This gave John Doe in China full control over the device, letting him do the work while pretending to be Vong.
From March 2023 to July 2023, John Doe used Vong’s credentials and the Virginia company’s laptop to complete the software development work—without the company or the FAA knowing that the real work was happening from China. Vong collected over $28,000 in wages from the company, part of which he sent to his overseas co-conspirators.
But this case wasn’t just a one-time scam. According to the plea agreement, between 2021 and 2024, Vong used the same tricks to get hired by at least 13 different U.S. companies. Altogether, he was paid more than $970,000 in salary for work that was actually done by foreign nationals in China, using his access.
Several of the companies that hired Vong didn’t just use him for in-house work—they subcontracted his services to U.S. government agencies. That means people in China were unknowingly granted access to sensitive U.S. systems tied to national defense and security, all through Vong’s name and credentials.
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The FBI’s Baltimore Field Office led the investigation into Vong’s actions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina A. Hoffman, along with Trial Attorney Alexandra Cooper-Ponte from the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section, handled the prosecution.
This case is part of a broader initiative called the DPRK RevGen: Domestic Enabler Initiative, launched in March 2024. It focuses on stopping “laptop farms”—locations where U.S. laptops are used by foreign workers pretending to be Americans. These operations trick companies and agencies into thinking the people doing the work are based in the United States, when in fact they’re halfway across the world, sometimes in adversarial nations.
The Justice Department has taken similar action multiple times in the past year. In October 2023, May 2024, August 2024, December 2024, and January 2025, they busted other schemes involving fake IT workers and stolen access to government systems.
Vong now faces up to 20 years in prison for his role in this conspiracy. His sentencing is scheduled for August 28, and a federal judge will decide his punishment based on U.S. sentencing guidelines and other legal factors.
