❓WHAT HAPPENED: A State Department employee was sentenced to four years in prison for selling national defense secrets to people he believed were working for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, and people he believed to be Chinese government agents.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Schena’s espionage activity began in April 2022, culminating in his arrest in February 2025. Key incidents occurred in the United States and during a meeting in Peru.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top-Secret security clearance.” – Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg
🎯IMPACT: The case highlights the dangers of insider threats and serves as a warning to those who might consider betraying their country for personal gain.
A State Department employee, Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, has been sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed to be working for the Chinese government, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Schena began his espionage activities in April 2022, communicating with people he met online who claimed to be employees of international consulting companies.
Despite clear indications that these people were working on behalf of the Chinese government, Schena continued to provide them with sensitive government information in exchange for money. In August 2024, Schena met with one of these individuals at a hotel in Peru, where he was given $10,000 and a cellphone to facilitate further exchanges.
Using this cellphone, Schena took photographs of classified documents marked as SECRET while at work and transmitted at least four of these documents in October 2024. In February, he used the phone again to photograph seven additional classified documents, an act that was captured by surveillance video.
Before Schena could transmit the latest photographs, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents seized the cellphone and arrested him. The DOJ said that Schena’s actions represented a significant betrayal of trust and a violation of his Top-Secret security clearance.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg stated, “The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top-Secret security clearance. He will spend years of his life in prison for passing classified information to individuals he believed to be Chinese government agents. Today’s sentence serves as a warning to those who would violate the trust placed in them by our Nation and double-cross the American people.”
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