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A 40-year-old nail salon worker from Maryland faces a 20-year sentence after being convicted for securing 13 IT jobs illegally.
A nail salon worker earned Rs 8 crore by illegally securing 13 IT jobs.
Minh Phuong Ngoc Vong, a resident of Maryland, pleaded guilty to executing a fraudulent scheme that netted him approximately Rs 8 crore ( $970000) by illegally securing 13 IT jobs, despite having no formal education or experience in software development. Remarkably, Vong managed to land multiple high-paying tech roles — even with U.S. government agencies — without ever writing a single line of code himself.
To pursue these remote jobs he outsourced software engineers from North Korea to do his work. These individuals not only completed his assignments but also impersonated him in daily virtual meetings, seamlessly integrating into company workflows under his name, Fortune reports.
The scam began when Vong met a person on a gaming app, called himself “William James” who offered him a deal to make money through IT jobs. After Vong accepted, James and his team provided him with a fake resume, which claimed that Vong held a professional degree from the University of Hawai and 16 years of work experience as a software developer. James assured Vong that the operation was legal. And from here Vong’s life turned into a fraudulent journey of managing companies to hire him.
He has joined government agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) where he received a MacBook Pro and a Personal ID card to monitor aviation assets. As his way of doing work, he outsourced Chinese individuals and gave them access to log in under his name. They even attended online meetings and discussed work as Vong.
According to the US Department of Justice, this is the tactic China-based developers use to get real-time access to US government systems.
The fraud remained undetected until one employer noticed inconsistencies in screenshots submitted during interview rounds. A background check returned negative results, prompting the company to alert the FBI. After a thorough investigation, federal agents uncovered the full scope of Vong’s scheme.
Vong now awaits sentencing and could face up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
- Location :
Delhi, India, India
