Army soldier arrested on charges of selling sensitive military information to China

March 8 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst has been accused of selling national defense information to China, becoming the latest member of the military to be implicated in the sharing of U.S. military secrets.

Korbein Schultz was arrested Thursday at Fort Campbell, Tenn., after a federal grand jury charged him in a six-count indictment with selling U.S. military information to a person he knew lived in China over the course of several years for which he was paid some $42,000.

Schultz is to make his first appearance in court Friday.

"The defendant is charged with entering into a multiyear conspiracy to illegally exploit his access to national defense information for his own financial benefit," U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee told reporters Thursday during a brief press conference .

"He traded our national defense information for cash."

Today, Sgt. Korbein Schultz was arrested for conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, export of technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official. pic.twitter.com/WAPXLLVYeg — Army Counterintelligence Command (ACIC) (@Real_ArmyCI) March 7, 2024

The indictment states that conspiracy began in June 2022 and continued until Schultz was arrested. Information he allegedly sold includes manuals for the F22-A fighter jet and the HH-60w helicopter as well as documents on intercontinental missiles, hypersonic equipment and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which has proven effective in Ukraine's defense against Russia.

He is also accused of sending his co-conspirator -- who told Schultz that they resided in Hong Kong and worked for a geopolitical consulting firm -- information on future development of U.S. military forces, studies on major countries, such as China, and summaries of military drills, operations and tactics.

The court document states his conspirator, who is identified as Conspirator A, contacted Schultz, who maintained a top secret security clearance, in June 2022 and asked for documents on what the U.S. military had learned from Russia's war with Ukraine concerning a potential invasion of Taiwan by China.

Prosecutors said Schultz provided his conspirator with the information and was paid $200. Schultz then allegedly told his conspirator that he wanted to make their relationship a long-term deal.

As the relationship continued, Conspirator A continued to ask for more sensitive military information for which he could pay Schultz more money.

"I hope so!" Schultz is quoted in the court document of having replied to Conspirator A. "I need to get my other BMW back!"

Then in the fall of 2022, the pair discussed recruiting another member of the U.S. military into their conspiracy, the indictment states.

"The men and women of the United States Armed Forces dedicate their lives to maintain our national security. Our laws protecting national defense information are critical to that mission and they must be enforced," Leventis said.

"The illegal dissemination of national defense information puts our country, our fellow citizens, members of our military and our allies at risk."

Schultz's case is the latest involving a U.S. military member accused of sharing of national defense information.

On Monday, David Franklin Slater, a retired U.S. army lieutenant colonel who worked as a civilian Air Force employee, was charged with sharing classified information on Russia's war over a foreign online dating website with a person purporting to be a woman from Ukraine.

That same day, Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to charges of leaking top secret Pentagon documents about the war in Ukraine on Discord.

And in August, Jinchao Wei and Wenheng Zhao of the U.S. Navy were separately arrested and charged with sending China U.S. military secrets. Their arrests were even discussed by Schultz and Conspirator A, according to the indictment, which said Conspirator A told Schultz "that they must be more careful with security."

Zhao was sentenced to 27 months in prison in January after pleading guilty in October.