A U.S. Navy sailor has been sentenced to 27 months in jail for leaking sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for money.
According to court documents, 26 year-old Wenheng Zhao pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiring with the intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe.
The Petty Officer from Monterey Park, California, has also been ordered to pay a $5,500 fine.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today, he is being held to account for those crimes. The Justice Department is committed to combatting the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine our nation’s security and holding accountable those who violate our laws as part of those efforts.”
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California said Zhao, who has been working at a California naval base, has now been removed from the military and will serve time in federal prison.
Zhao made the spy work while he was posted at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a U.S. security clearance.
The Department of Justice said that between August 2021 and May 2023, Zhao received $14,866 in 14 installments of bribe payments from the intelligence officer. In exchange, he secretly collected and transmitted “sensitive, non-public information regarding U.S. Navy operational security, military training and exercises, and critical infrastructure”.
Zhao transmitted plans for a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific, operational orders and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system located in Okinawa, Japan.
He used sophisticated encrypted communication methods to transmit the information, and destroyed evidence and concealed his relationship with the intelligence officer.
The Chinese-born Zhao, who immigrated to the US in 2009, was arrested in August in California.
The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) conducted a lengthy investigation into the crime with substantial assistance from IRS-Criminal Investigation.
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