Chinese National Sentenced for Acting at North Korea’s Direction to Export Firearms, Ammo, Tech to N. Korea

An illegal alien from China was sentenced yesterday to 96 months in prison for illegally exporting firearms, ammunition, and other military items to North Korea by concealing them inside shipping containers that departed from the Port of Long Beach, and for committing this crime at the direction of North Korean government officials, who wired him approximately $2 million for his efforts.

Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson for the Central District of California

Wen, who has been in federal custody since December 2024, pleaded guilty on June 9 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.

Wen is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China who entered the United States in 2012 on a student visa and remained in the U.S. illegally after his student visa expired in December 2013.

Read more: Department of Justice