The defendant has been staying in California illegally for years after his student visa expired.
A Chinese national who overstayed his student visa has been sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally shipping ammunition and other military items to North Korea via China.
Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario, California, was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles on Aug. 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a statement.
Wen has been in federal custody since last December, when he was arrested at his home in Ontario. In June, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office detailed Wen’s scheme, which began before he entered the United States.
Wen came to the United States on a student visa in 2012, but never left after it expired in December 2013.
Before coming to the United States, Wen met with North Korean officials at a North Korean embassy in China, where he received instructions to procure goods for Pyongyang.
After being contacted by two North Korean government officials in 2022, Wen began shipping firearms and other goods from the Port of Long Beach in 2023. He concealed these shipments by methods that included filing false export information.
In 2023, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms. One of the shipments arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024, before being transported to Nampo, North Korea.
In September 2024, Wen purchased approximately 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, which he intended to ship to North Korea.
In all, North Korean officials wired about $2 million to Wen to purchase firearms and other goods for their government.
In a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors in early August, Wen obscured the wire transfer from North Korean officials by having the money sent from a bank in China to Hong Kong, before depositing it into his girlfriend’s bank accounts.
Wen also acquired and attempted to acquire a thermal imaging system—used for reconnaissance and target identification—that could be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, and other aircraft, according to the court document.
By Frank Fang
