US Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified info to China in exchange for $42K
By Oren Liebermann, CNN
(CNN) — A US Army sergeant has been charged with leaking classified information to China in exchange for $42,000 after prosecutors said he repeatedly sent sensitive documents about some of the military’s most advanced weapons to a foreign national claiming to live in Hong Kong.
Prosecutors said Sergeant Korbein Schultz, who served as an intelligence analyst with the 506th Infantry Battalion, repeatedly used his Top Secret security clearance to access classified documents, which he then allegedly sent to the foreign national.
Schultz has been charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and bribery of a public official.
It was not immediately clear whether Schultz has legal representation.
“The unauthorized sale of such information violates our national security laws, compromises our safety, and cannot be tolerated,” said Henry C. Leventis, US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The foreign national, identified only as Conspirator A in the federal indictment, contacted Schultz during the summer of 2022, asking for information about lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and what that taught the US about defending Taiwan. Prosecutors said Schultz was paid $200 for the first documents.
According to prosecutors, that relationship quickly grew.
In July of that year, Schultz told Conspirator A that he wanted to turn their relationship into a long-term partnership, according to the indictment. Over the next several months, Schultz allegedly began sending Conspirator A documents about the HIMARS rocket launcher system, hypersonic missiles, information about China’s military and the F-22 fighter jet, one of the most advanced American aircraft.
“I will just keep sending you an abundance of information,” Schultz told the conspirator in late-August 2022. Schultz wished he could be “Jason Bourne,” according to the indictment, a reference to the fictional CIA assassin in film.
Prosecutors said some of the sensitive information also included details about the U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, intercontinental ballistic missiles and more.
In exchange, Schultz allegedly received regular payments from Conspirator A, who paid higher prices for more sensitive documents. Between July 2022 and October 2023, Schultz received approximately 14 payments totaling about $42,000.
In a video on the Defense Department’s video system from August 2021, Schultz talks about his job helping Afghan refugees as they arrive in the US.
“I love being here actually,” he says. “So I joined the Army to help out people because I love to help out people. That’s one of my… some people would say bad talents. But helping people out is possibly the greatest thing that I could ever do.”
Schultz’s indictment comes just three days after federal prosecutors announced charges against another service member for leaking classified information.
Prosecutors said 63-year-old David Franklin Slater, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who held a Top Secret security clearance at US Strategic Command, sent information from classified briefings on the war in Ukraine to someone claiming to be a Ukrainian woman on a foreign dating website.
Slater faces one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information and two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000.
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