Tag: espionage

Ex-Army Sergeant Sentenced to 4 Years for Offering Secrets to China

A federal judge sentenced a former Army intelligence sergeant to 4 years in prison on Tuesday for offering national defense secrets to China. Sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt, who had top secret clearance, served in western Washington at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where he worked in military intelligence.

According to court documents, he served in the Army from January 2015 to January 2020. Schmidt was discharged after a mental health episode in late 2019.

The judge said he considered Schmidt’s mental health as well as the seriousness of the crime in sentencing him to 4 years in prison. Schmidt’s public defender requested that he be sentenced for time served, arguing that the crime was the result of schizophrenia. Schmidt mistakenly believed he was “subject to a mind control network operated by the FBI and [was] hoping to warn the Chinese government about the Program,” according to the public defender Dennis Carroll.

In the Army, Schmidt led a team that de-briefed and interrogated potential intelligence sources. His work gave him access to intelligence collection and reporting systems. After being discharged, he kept a device that gave him access to secure military computer networks. He later offered the device to Chinese authorities for them to access the secure system.

“He used his training to provide sensitive information to the Chinese security service. He knew what he was doing was wrong—he was doing web searches for such things as ‘Can you be extradited for treason,’” said Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg in a statement.

In February 2020, Schmidt flew to Turkey. Court documents state that while there, he searched online about defecting from the United States. He also emailed the Chinese consulate offering to share information with a Chinese official in person.

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China, Russia use ‘asymmetric advantage,’ unleash sex warfare to seduce US tech execs, steal secrets: report

China and Russia have deployed attractive women to the United States to seduce unwitting Silicon Valley tech executives as part of a “sex warfare” operation aimed at stealing American technology secrets, according to a report.

Industry insiders told The Times of London that they have been approached by would-be honeypots — some of whom have even managed to ensnare their targets by marrying them and having children.

Chinese and Russian agents are also using social media, startup competitions and venture capital investments to infiltrate the heart of America’s tech industry, the report said.

“I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at risk-assessment firm Pamir Consulting, told The Times.

“It really seems to have ramped up recently.”

A former US counterintelligence official who now works for Silicon Valley startups told The Times that he recently investigated one case of a “beautiful” Russian woman who worked at a US-based aerospace company, where she met an American colleague whom she eventually married.

According to the former counterintelligence official, the woman in question attended a modelling academy when she was in her twenties. Afterward, she was enrolled in a “Russian soft-power school” before she fell off the radar for a decade — only to re-emerge in the US as an expert in cryptocurrency.

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Foreign Espionage Arrests Up 50 Percent: FBI

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent.

“We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference.

“In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.”

State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested on Oct. 12, was accused of removing classified information and meeting with Chinese regime officials.

A former State Department employee, Michael Schena, was arrested in March and sentenced on Sept. 4 for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to Chinese authorities.

In August, two Chinese nationals were arrested and accused of smuggling sensitive AI chips, subject to export controls, to China.

In June, two Chinese nationals were arrested on charges of spying for Chinese intelligence operations.

In September, an Armenian national was charged with conspiring to export goods and information that would help with semiconductor manufacturing to Russia.

On Aug. 6, Taylor Adam Lee, an active duty soldier, was arrested on charges of attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary, Russia.

In March, two Iranian nationals were charged with conspiring to supply drones and launder money for the IRGC, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Patel also said there have been 125 counterterrorism cases this year, compared to 100 last year. And he cited increased disruptions of cybercrime enterprises.

“This year, you already have 52 arrests. Fifty-two arrests of violent cyber criminals who are stealing from senior citizens, who are violating our children’s rights and freedoms, and who are violating everyday Americans,” he said.

U.S. law enforcement, cooperating with UK law enforcement, announced the seizure of $15 billion in bitcoin from a Cambodian cyberscam ring on Oct. 14. This represents the largest-ever digital currency seizure by U.S. law enforcement.

Chen Zhi and his Prince Group conglomerate allegedly engaged in a massive wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy via at least 10 slave labor scam compounds across Cambodia.

The scam ring also used networks around the world, according to the Justice Department, and one such branch in Brooklyn was responsible for laundering millions of dollars taken from more than 250 victims in the United States.

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State Department Employee Steals Thousands of Pages of “Top Secret” Classified Documents, Meets with Chinese Officials

A State Department contractor stole thousands of pages of “TOP SECRET” classified documents and met with Beijing officials.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on India and South Asian affairs, removed the top secret documents from secure locations and met with Chinese officials.

The classified documents were located in Tellis’s Virginia home during a raid.

“On Sept. 25, he allegedly printed U.S. Air Force documents concerning military aircraft capabilities. Federal prosecutors allege that he met with Chinese government officials multiple times over the past several years,” Fox News reported.

Prosecutors said in September 2022 that Tellis brought a manila envelope with him when he met with Chinese officials in a Virginia restaurant.

Fox News reported:

A State Department employee is accused of removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials dating back to 2023.

The Justice Department said Ashley Tellis was an unpaid senior adviser to the State Department and also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense, recently renamed the Department of War. He is considered a subject-matter expert on India and South Asian affairs in his role at the Office of Net Assessment.

Tellis began working for the State Department in 2001, court documents state. He is accused of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to an affidavit.

He held a top-secret clearance and had access to sensitive information, federal prosecutors said in court documents. He was also employed as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Spies were ‘gagged’ from objecting to new Chinese mega embassy plans

British spies were ‘gagged’ from raising objections to a new Chinese embassy in east London, documents suggest.

The revelations about the proposed embassy – dubbed a ‘spy campus’ – are likely to increase concerns about the development on the site of the Royal Mint buildings near the Tower of London.

A final decision on whether to approve the plan, revived by No 10 despite being blocked by the previous government after warnings from MI5 and Scotland Yard in 2022, has been deferred while the row about the collapsed Chinese spy trial continues.

Now unearthed documents show inspectors were denied access to key secret documents by Labour when approving the ‘mega embassy’ which will be ‘crawling with spies’.

The documents include a critical assessment from security services – the contents of which have been redacted. 

Ministers refused to allow a private inquiry, which would have allowed secret evidence to be considered.

Critics have accused ministers of trying to ram the application through and shut down any dissent or security concerns which might jeopardise it.

Officials in the Communities Department, which is handling the planning case, are preparing to announce the October 21 deadline will be pushed back. 

The department declined to comment.

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REVEALED: Undercover spy who infiltrated Swampy’s Newbury Pass eco-warriors is unmasked as paedophile who tried to have sex with children as young as six

The undercover spy who thwarted eco-warriors behind the Newbury Pass protest of the 1990s has been convicted of trying to have sex with children as young as six.

Special Branch hired a freelance agent to infiltrate a group of activists living in tunnels under the construction site and provide vital intelligence which allowed police to stealthily snatch them from the burrows.

For 30 years his identity has remained a secret.

But the Mail can unmask the spy as Edward Gratwick, who was yesterday convicted of 38 child sex offences.

The 68-year-old was arrested at Stansted Airport on March 7 while attempting to fly to Bucharest to sexually abuse a Romanian schoolgirl after making an arrangement with the child’s mother.

National Crime Agency officers swooped on the airport after receiving intelligence from foreign authorities just a few hours previously. Three children have now been safeguarded, the agency said.

Gratwick had discussed plans to abuse children in the UK and abroad with multiple individuals, some of whom were parents offering their daughters for sex.

He spoke with other paedophiles via encrypted messaging apps, offering to help supply with them children in exchange for money.

In these conversations, he boasted of having sex with a nine-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic.

Gratwick’s passport showed he travelled extensively around the world including to Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic, Morrocco, around Europe, and the USA.

Investigators said they were investigating whether he had indeed already abused children abroad as he claimed.

Wayne Johns, head of child sexual abuse investigations at the NCA, said Gratwick’s chatlogs were the most depraved that his team of seasoned child abuse detectives had ever witnessed.

‘A dedicated team very experienced in their field had to examine these messages and for them to point out how horrendous they are is testament to the level of offending,’ he added.

When police searched Gratwick’s home in Mitcham, south London, they found 69ml of ‘date rape’ drug GBL, which is a central nervous system depressant, in a drawer of his fridge.

In messages he had discussed drugging children so they would not remember the abuse they suffered.

Detectives also discovered 1,364 indecent images of children on his devices.

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HUNGARIAN WITCH HUNT: After Ukraine Accused Orbán of Sending Drones Into Its Airspace, Now the European Union Is Investigating an Alleged Hungarian Spy Ring in Brussels

‘Everything is Hungary’s fault’.

There’s a new illness of the mind going around the Globalist corners of the European Union.

You can call it Hungarophobia or Magyarophobia, and it basically means that the conservative central European country is receiving the ‘Russian treatment’, with constant psyops and disinformation against it.

Around 10 days ago, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky publicly accused Budapest of deploying multiple drones into Ukrainian airspace – a serious accusation never backed with any data, and soon dropped into oblivion.

Now, the Globalist archfoes of the European Union have broken another ‘sensational story’ against Viktor Orbán and his government.

Euronews reported:

“According to reports that sparked the probe, the undercover spy ring allegedly operated under the cover of the Hungarian permanent representation, which at that time was led by Olivér Várhelyi, who is now a European Commissioner.

The European Commission launched a probe on Thursday after several media reports alleged that the Hungarian secret services were trying to recruit EU employees in Brussels as informants.”

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Turkey arrests alleged Israeli Mossad spy

Turkey’s intelligence service announced the arrest of an alleged Israeli spy in Istanbul during a joint operation, state media reported on Friday.

“Serkan Cicek, who was identified as working for the Israeli secret service Mossad, was detained as a result of a joint operation carried out by the MIT [Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization], the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Istanbul Provincial Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism Branch,” Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency reported on Friday. 

Cicek, a detective, had reportedly worked with Musa Kus and lawyer Tugrulhan Dip in the past, both “arrested for spying for Israel” and accused of providing personal data from public records to detectives “in exchange for financial gain,” Anadolu added.

The report further claimed that Cicek had been in contact with a member of Israel’s Online Operations Center named Faysal Rasheed, and had admitted to allegedly conducting surveillance on a Palestinian activist.

The statement accused Cicek of being contacted on July 31 by Rasheed, who reportedly was posing as a member of a foreign law firm. Rasheed then allegedly hired Cicek to surveil a Palestinian activist in Basaksehir, paying $4,000 in cryptocurrency; an offer which Cicek accepted “despite knowing his associate Kus had been jailed for spying for Israel.”

Turkey frequently arrests individuals on charges of espionage, particularly those involving foreign intelligence agencies such as Israel’s Mossad. Authorities have detained dozens of suspects over the past year.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have soured in recent years in light of Ankara’s condemnation of Israel’s extensive military campaign in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 incursion.

In November 2024, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan announced that Turkey has cut all ties with Israel.

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Founder of NYC Pro-Democracy Group Pleads Guilty to Spying for China

A Chinese man living in New York City has pleaded guilty to spying on his fellow activists on behalf of the Chinese regime’s intelligence agency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Sept. 16.

Tang Yuanjun, 68, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was a prominent figure in New York City’s Chinese dissident community, having participated in protests outside the Chinese Consulate in the New York City borough of Manhattan and founded a pro-democracy group, the Chinese Democracy Party Eastern U.S. Headquarters Inc., based in the Flushing neighborhood of the borough of Queens.

Despite his public advocacy against Beijing, Tang was secretly working under the direction of the Chinese intelligence service to collect information on his fellow Chinese American dissidents, according to a guilty plea entered on Sept. 16.

As part of the plea, Tang admitted to one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the attorney general, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

“For years, Yuanjun Tang abused the trust he had gained among pro-democracy activists in New York City and around the United States by secretly accepting tasks from Chinese intelligence officers and reporting on persons of interest to the [People’s Republic of China] and events conducted in support of democracy,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“Tang’s covert operations violated our nation’s sovereignty and threatened the security of New Yorkers exercising their fundamental rights to free speech and free association. Tang’s plea … illustrates our profound commitment to protecting American ideals from malign foreign influence.”

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Israeli intel campaign used US comedian in effort to flip Iranian scientists

A mysterious online campaign linked to Israel’s intelligence services attempted to recruit Iranians to overthrow their government. Some appear to have been placed by an Atlanta-based comedian and influencer.

Desi Banks, an Atlanta comedian and content creator, is known for his light-hearted comic sketches and currently has more than nine million followers on the social media platform Instagram. There is no public record of Banks commenting on sensitive Middle East issues, and each of his ad campaigns on Meta’s platforms relates to his work as an entertainer.

The comedian, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, seems to have served a surprising role in an apparent Israeli intelligence operation over the last year to recruit members of Iran’s security and intelligence services – including those working in nuclear centers – into aiding the overthrow of their government. Would-be defectors were offered both money and the protection of their families.

Google advertising transparency records show that a production company owned by Banks, Desi Banks Productions LLC, served a set of four Persian-language recruitment ads across at least 19 countries, including the U.S., Sweden, France, Germany, India, and numerous others across the Middle East and Africa.

The four ad campaigns included both overt and deceptive redirections into recruitment pages purporting to be run by Israel’s foreign intelligence services, the Mossad. Others advertise lucrative, tax-free jobs at apparently fictitious international consulting firms.

The most aggressive campaign redirected users to the Mossad’s official, Persian-language recruitment form, advising viewers to activate their virtual private network (VPN) before clicking. According to Google’s ad disclosure portal, this campaign was the sole instance of a Google ad directly linking to the Mossad’s official website, mossad.gov.il.

Germany-based family members of Iranian nuclear engineers appear to be a major focus of the effort, as Germany is the only country identified by the Google ad transparency portal as being targeted with all four ad campaigns.

“You are just one click away from making history,” read the Mossad recruitment ad, captioned atop a darkened cartoon of a man walking down a multi-lane road. “Call Now. The future belongs to you.”

This direct call to espionage was targeted to viewers in at least 18 countries, including the United States.

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