A former U.S. defense intelligence agent
was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for selling national secrets
to China, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 60, was sentenced after pleading guilty in March to
attempting to communicate, deliver or transmit information involving
the national defense of the United States to China.
"Ron Hansen was willing to betray his oath and his country for financial
gain," said Paul Haertel, special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt
Lake City field office. "This case brings to light that not all spies
are foreign adversaries. Insider threats pose a significant national
security risk and the FBI will continue to aggressively investigate
those who put our country and citizens at risk."
Hansen was arrested June 2, 2018, while attempting to board a flight to
China and was found with thousands of dollars in cash, documents with
locations of U.S. Cyber Command outposts and a passcode-protected thumb
drive hidden in a shoe.
As part of his plea agreement, Hansen admitted that he was recruited by
agents of a Chinese intelligence service to solicit national security
information from an intelligence case officer working for the Defense
Intelligence Agency.
He also said he met with the DIA case officer on the day of his arrest
and received documents containing classified national defense
information.
In addition to the 10-year federal prison sentence, Hansen agreed to
forfeit property acquired through or traceable to his offense, including
that used to facilitate the crime.
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