Oct. 11 (UPI) — A U.S. Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to sending sensitive U.S. military information to a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for less than $15,000 in bribes.
Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, of Monterey Park, Calif., was stationed at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme where he held security clearance.
Prosecutors in the indictment said that from August 2021 to at least May 2023, Zhao surreptitiously collected sensitive information on Navy operations security that he sent to an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer who is identified in the charging document as Conspirator A.
Court documents state that he was paid $14,866 in exchange for the information.
Zhao pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to federal offenses of conspiracy and bribery.
“The intelligence services of the People’s Republic of China actively target clearance holders across the military, seeking to entice them with money to provide sensitive government information,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said Tuesday in a statement.
“When contacted by his co-conspirator, rather than reporting it to the Navy, the defendant chose greed over protecting the national security of the United States. He is now being held accountable for his crimes.”
Zhao has admitted to sending the Chinese officer photos and videos of restricted areas of the Naval Base Ventura County and San Clemente Island, the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California and which is administered by Naval Base Coronado.
Among the information he sent the Chinese officer included that about a large military exercise being planned in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically plans and details regarding locations and timing of U.S. naval force movements.
Photographs of a diagram concerning the exercises as well as a dozen other photos of computer screens that displayed operational orders for the military training exercises were among the details he sent to the Chinese officer about the exercises.
He also sent his coconspirator five photographs of diagrams and blueprints outlining an electrical system at a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.
Zhao has been in U.S. custody since he was arrested and charged in August along with Jinchao Wie, another U.S. Navy sailor accused of conspiring to send national defense information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
While Wie has pleaded not guilty, Zhao faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 8.
“Officer Zhao betrayed his country and the men and women of the U.S. Navy by accepting bribes from a foreign adversary,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California said in a statement.
“While he and the PRC officer he served took great pains to conceal their corrupt scheme, investigators were vigilant in uncovering this shameful plot.”