The FBI has arrested a former defense intelligence officer who is accused of “attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China” — or, espionage.
According to the Justice Department, Ron Rockwell Hansen, 38, of Utah, was arrested Saturday afternoon as he was on his way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to board a flight to China.
Hansen, who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency, is accused of attempting to transmit national defense information to China’s intelligence service, known as PRCIS, and receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars while acting as an agent of the country.
“His alleged actions are a betrayal of our nation’s security and the American people and are an affront to his former intelligence community colleagues. Our intelligence professionals swear an oath to protect our country’s most closely held secrets and the National Security Division will continue to relentlessly pursue justice against those who violate this oath,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers in a statement.
Court documents show that Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a warrant officer and was hired by DIA as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006, where he held a top security clearance.
“Between 2013 and 2017, Hansen regularly traveled between the United States and China, attending military and intelligence conferences in the U.S. and provided the information he learned at the conferences to contacts in China associated with the PRCIS,” court documents show. “Hansen received payments for this information by a variety of methods, including cash, wires and credit card transactions. He also improperly sold export-controlled technology to persons in China. From May of 2013 to the date of the complaint, Hansen received not less than $800,000 in funds originating from China.”
Scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Hansen has been charged in a 15-count complaint that includes charges of attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government, acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions, and smuggling goods from the United States.
According to the Justice Department, Hansen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if he is convicted of espionage.
