Former U.S. Intelligence Officer Charged With Selling Secrets To China

By SCOTT NEUMAN

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, of Syracuse, Utah, was arrested on Saturday by the FBI on charges of attempted espionage for the Chinese.

A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer has been charged with attempted espionage for selling secrets to China.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, a 58-year-old Utah resident, was seized on Saturday on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where prosecutors say he meant to board a China-bound flight.
According to The Associated Press, a 41-page felony complaint details how Hansen was paid as much as $800,000 over a period of years to provide technology and secrets to Beijing.
"Several years after he left the U.S. government, he attended trade conferences on behalf of China and shared information he gathered with officials connected to Chinese intelligence. Charging documents also allege he transferred forensic software worth several thousand dollars, in violation of export controls," the AP writes.
The FBI began investigating Hansen in 2014 and he approached FBI informants in 2015 and again in 2016, acknowledging to them that he was being paid to pass information to China, according to the AP.
Reuters reports that he also sold export-controlled technology.
"His actions are a betrayal of our nation's security and the American people and are an affront to his former intelligence community colleagues," John Demers, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Hansen was a DIA case officer while on active military duty from 2000-2006 and held a top-secret clearance for years.

Former CIA Officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, Charged With Spying For China
Last month, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a 53-year-old former Central Intelligence Agency officer who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged with conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of China.
In 2012, the FBI searched his hotel room in Honolulu and discovered notebooks of handwritten notes – including information about U.S. assets in China, according to court documents.