Pentagon Staffer Guilty Of Handing Secrets To China Agent
Pentagon Staffer Guilty Of Handing Secrets To China Agent
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A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said.
Gregg William Bergersen, 51, faces up to 10 years in jail after admitting to one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, the department said in a statement.
It said Bergersen started handing secret information in March 2007 to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a Taiwan-born US citizen with business interests in New Orleans.
Bergersen worked as a weapons systems policy analyst at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements the Pentagon's foreign military sales program.
Unbeknown to Bergersen, Kuo was passing the information to an unnamed Chinese government official. But the DoJ statement said the US official knew the documents, many of which were about US weapons sales to Taiwan, were classified and should not be shared with outsiders.
"During the course of the conspiracy, Kuo cultivated a friendship with Bergersen, bestowing on him gifts, cash payments, dinners, and money for gambling during trips to Las Vegas," it said.
Bergersen will be sentenced on June 20 and faces up to 10 years behind bars, the statement said. Both Kuo and an alleged conspirator, Chinese citizen Yu Xin Kang, remain held without bond pending espionage charges.
Patrick Rowan, acting assistant attorney general for national security, said Bergersen had "betrayed his oath to serve and protect our nation."
"This case serves as a reminder that espionage networks are relentless in their efforts to steal our secrets and continue to pose a serious threat to our national security," he said.
China's foreign secret service is among the "most aggressive" in trying to steal sensitive US military technology and information, US Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell charged last September.
A week ago, Chinese-born US engineer Chi Mak was jailed for 24 years after being convicted of conspiring to smuggle sensitive technology about US Navy submarines to China.
Re: Pentagon Staffer Guilty Of Handing Secrets To China Agent
Woman Admits Helping Pass Secrets To China
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A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping a spy provide the Chinese government with U.S. military secrets about arms sales to Taiwan.
Yu Sin Kang, a Chinese citizen living legally in the United States, admitted serving as an intermediary for the delivery of classified information from agent Tai Shen Kuo to the Chinese government.
Kang, 33, faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced August 1 in federal court in Virginia.
Kang's plea marks the third and final guilty plea in what the U.S. government has called a "significant" conspiracy to obtain sensitive information on U.S. weapons destined for Taiwan.
Authorities touted the prosecutions against Kang and her co-conspirators as part of efforts to combat "aggressive" Chinese government espionage programs that the U.S. government had not seen since the Cold War with the former Soviet Union.
Officials alleged that Gregg Bergersen, a weapons systems policy analyst for a Defense Department agency in Arlington, Virginia, sold highly classified information to Kuo, 58, a naturalized citizen who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Kuo is said to have handed the information to Kang, a lawful resident alien also living in New Orleans. Kang in turn allegedly gave the information to a spy for the Chinese government.
Kuo pleaded guilty May 13 and faces a maximum life sentence at his August 8 sentencing.
Bergersen admitted handing over the secrets in exchange for gifts including dinners and a trip to Las Vegas. He said he was duped into believing that Kuo was working for a Taiwanese business that would hire him.
Bergersen faces up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing, set for July 11.
