WASHINGTON: A former officer with the US Defense Intelligence Agency wasarrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to spy on the United Statesfor China, the Justice Department said on Monday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, intocustody on Saturday while he was on his way to the Seattle-TacomaInternational Airport to get a connecting flight to China.
The department said he has been accused of trying to transmit nationaldefense information to China and with receiving “hundreds of thousands ofdollars” while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government.
Reuters could not immediately learn who may be representing Hansen in thecase.
Hansen is the latest person in a string of former US intelligence officersto be swept up in criminal probes related to spying for the Chinese.
Earlier this year, former CIA case officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee wasindicted for conspiring to gather or deliver national defense informationto China.
Another former US intelligence employee named Kevin Mallory is on trial inVirginia, also in connection with selling secrets to China.
In the new case announced Monday, prosecutors said that Hansen speaksfluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian.
He served as a case officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency while onactive military duty from 2000-2006, and later continued that line of workas a civilian employee and a contractor.
He also held a top secret clearance for years.
The government said that between 2013 and 2017, he traveled between the twocountries attending conferences and provided the information he learned toChina’s intelligence service.
He was paid via wire transfers, cash and credit cards. He also allegedlyimproperly sold export-controlled technology.
“His alleged actions are a betrayal of our nation’s security and theAmerican people and are an affront to his former intelligence communitycolleagues,” said John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’sNational Security Division.
According to court records, the FBI started investigating his activities in2014. He was unaware of the probe, and participated in nine voluntarymeetings with federal agents in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Prosecutors say that during his meetings, he told the FBI that Chineseintelligence had tried to recruit him, offered to cooperate as a source andeven provided thumb drives to the FBI that contained classified materialshe was not authorized to have.
Hansen appeared before a magistrate judge in Seattle on Monday, and ischarged in a 15-count complaint.