U.S. Navy sailor, petty officer Wenheng Zhao, originally pleading not guilty in August, has now pled guilty to one count of conspiracy with a foreign intelligence officer and one count for accepting bribes in exchange for providing sensitive military information to the Chinese. Zhao admitted to receiving almost $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer between August 2021 through May 2023. Zhao also confessed to sharing plans for a large scale maritime training exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, including operational orders, electrical diagrams and blue prints, and photos and videos. All of which detailed the location and timing of naval force movements. Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California said Zhao had “betrayed his country and the men and women of the U.S. Navy by accepting bribes from a foreign adversary.” Zhao, 26, held security clearance and was stationed at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, California.
Zhao will face a maximum penalty of 20 years in a federal prison and has been in custody since he was arrested on August 3. He is scheduled for sentencing in January 2024. Another Navy sailor, machinist’s mate, 22 year-old, Jinchao Wei was charged with espionage, conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the People’s Republic of China beginning in February 2022 through August 2023. Wei is alleged to accept thousands of dollars in exchange for the information.
Wei held security clearance stationed at Naval Base San Diego working as an active-duty sailor on the U.S.S Essex. Wei had access to sensitive defense information about the ship’s propulsion, weapons, and desalination systems. Wei allegedly sent videos and photos of the Essex, described the weapons used on the ship, disclosed locations of additional Navy ships, provided an abundance of technical and mechanical manuals of the ships.
Matthew Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for National Security said China’s intelligence services “actively target clearance holders across the military, seeking to entice them with money to provide sensitive government information.” A Chinese intelligence officer allegedly approached Wei while his application to become a U.S. citizen was pending, U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said. Grossman said, “Wei admitted to his handler that he knew this activity would be viewed as spying and could affect his pending citizenship application. Whether it was greed or some other reason, Wei allegedly chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country and entered into a conspiracy with his Chinese handler.”
Wei has pled not guilty and his status hearing is scheduled for February 2024. It is not clear, and officials have declined to comment on whether or not both sailors were communicating with the same intelligence officer. In addition to the two sailors, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Sgt. Joseph Schmidt, 29, was arrested last week on an indictment charging him with two federal felonies: attempt to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information. Schmidt’s last duty was Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington and is set to face the charges in Seattle.
According to the Justice Department, Schmidt was arrested on October 6th in the San Francisco International Airport when he arrived from a flight from Hong Kong, where he had been living since March 2020. Court documents indicate Schmidt sent an email in February 2020 to the Chinese Consulates’ public email address while in Turkey stating he was looking into moving to China and would “share information I learned during my career as an interrogator with the Chinese government.” The alleged email continued with Schmidt writing, “I have a current top secret clearance, and would like to talk to someone from the Government to share this information with you if that is possible. My experience includes training in interrogation, running sources as a spy handler, surveillance detection, and other advanced psychological operation strategies.”
Federal investigators also allegedly found a document Schmidt created titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government.” This document, along with others, contained classified national defense information according to the US Army. Schmidt has not yet entered a plea and could face a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for each count and $250,000 in fines.
By - FZ
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