US soldier Korbein Schultz jailed for selling defence secrets to China
A US Army intelligence analyst was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on Wednesday for providing sensitive defence information to China, including documents about US weapons systems and military tactics and strategy.
Sergeant Korbein Schultz, who held a top-secret security clearance, was arrested in March 2024 at Fort Campbell, a military base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Schultz was sentenced after he pleaded guilty last August to sharing at least 92 sensitive US military documents, the Justice Department said in a statement.
He admitted charges of conspiring to obtain and disclose national defence information, exporting technical data related to defence articles without a licence, conspiracy to export defence articles without a licence, and bribery of a public official.
“This sentencing is a stark warning to those who betray our country: you will pay a steep price for it,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
According to the charging documents, Schultz provided dozens of sensitive US military documents to an individual living in Hong Kong who he believed to be associated with the Chinese government.