By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
A U.S. Navy sailor has been sentenced to 27 months in jail for accepting nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photos of unclassified private U.S. military information.
The U.S. Naval officer was sentenced on Monday, January 8, 2024.
According to the Justice Department, Officer Wenheng Thomas Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty last year October to conspiracy and receiving a bribe.
Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in California, admitted he sent his Chinese handler plans for U.S. military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, operational orders, and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system on a U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.
“Zhao chose to betray the oath he took to our country and put others at risk.
“Today’s sentencing demonstrates, yet again, the inability of China’s intelligence services to prevent the FBI and our vital partners from apprehending and prosecuting the spies China recruits,” the executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Security Branch, Larissa Knapp, said in a statement.
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