Aug. 19 (UPI) — A Chinese national will spend nearly 10 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle weapons and sensitive U.S. technology to North Korea and accepting million-dollar bribes.
Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario, Calif., was sentenced to eight years on Monday by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson for conspiring to illegally smuggle sensitive U.S. technological data and multiple shipments of guns and ammunitions into North Korea in exchange for roughly $2 million, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles.
He was initially arrested last year in December and has since remained in federal custody.
On Monday, Wen was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson after admitting to the concealment of contraband in falsified shipping containers bound for China.
Wen is a Chinese citizen who entered the United States in 2012 on a student visa and remained illegally after his student visa expired December 2013.
He pleaded guilty on June 9 to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
According to federal officials, Wen reportedly met with emissaries at a North Korean embassy in China prior to entering the United States, where he was directed to “procure goods” on behalf of North Korea.
One weapons shipment was later transported from Hong Kong to Nampo, North Korea, after it was falsely reported to U.S. officials at the Port of Long Beach.
He was, officials added, contacted by officials from North Korea via an online messaging platform in 2022.
Authorities later searched his California home and found devices used to detect eavesdropping, among other items.
The multi-agency effort was a combined effort by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, DCIS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.