US soldier pleads guilty to selling defence information to China

Washington (US), August 14 (ANI): A US Army soldier and intelligence analyst has pleaded guilty to all charges of disclosing national defense information to China. The Justice Department said the “defendant abused his access to restricted government systems to sell classified military information to an individual he knew was a foreign national,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said on August 12.

American soldier Korbein Schultz was charged with exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and bribery of a public official.

Schultz, who held the highest secret security clearance, conspired with a Hong Kong-based individual “to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data regarding U.S. military weapons systems, and to pass that information” to the Chinese government in exchange for money. He was paid $42,000 to pass dozens of classified U.S. military documents to a Hong Kong-based individual he believed was connected to the Chinese government.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command.

The sentencing hearing will be held on January 23, 2025.

He was arrested in March this year and faces up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to obtain and transmit national defense information, and faces up to 20 years in prison for exporting technical data related to defense items to China without a license.

He also faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and 15 years in prison for bribery of a public official.

Before he was arrested, Schultz discussed dozens of confidential and classified U.S. military documents relating to various U.S. military weapons systems and U.S. military tactics and strategy, including documents containing export-controlled technical data.

Among the documents collected and provided by Schultz was a document discussing lessons learned by the U.S. military from the Ukraine-Russia war that could be used in a potential defense of Taiwan.

Other documents included an order specifying the deployment of the defendant’s unit to Eastern Europe in support of NATO operations, a publication concerning a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, documents concerning Chinese military tactics, Chinese military readiness, documents concerning military exercises and U.S. forces in the Republic of Korea and the Philippines, and a document concerning U.S. military satellites.

Deputy Director-in-Charge Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Division was quoted in a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice as saying that governments like China aggressively target U.S. military personnel and national security information, and “we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is protected from hostile foreign governments.” A U.S. district court judge will issue the sentence after considering U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Kurtzman of the Middle District of Tennessee and trial attorneys Adam Barry and Christopher Cook of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case. (ANI)