![]() ![]() ![]() Karabasevic pleaded guilty in an Austrian court in 2011.“They offered him women. Sinovel, instead, recruited Dejan Karabasevic, a Serbian employee based in Austria, to out-and-out steal the source code. Hansen pleaded not guilty to 15 counts in July.Īmerican Superconductor managers had heard horror stories of American companies having their intellectual property stolen by Chinese business partners, so the company went to great lengths to lock down its software and allow access only by its own employees. Ultimately, court documents show that Hansen received upwards of $800,000 from Chinese sources. Officials said he also purchased restricted forensics software to transport to China.Īll told, according to the complaint, Hansen made 40 trips to China between 20, often returning with tens of thousands of dollars in cash-four trips cited by the government netted him $19,000, $30,000, $20,000, and, in 2015, $53,000. He took photos, made notes, and tried to strike up contact with former DIA and intelligence colleagues. Hansen attended defense and intelligence conferences, allegedly on China’s behalf, for nearly four years, from 2013 through 2017. In 2014, Rockwell allegedly began meeting with two MSS officers-who introduced themselves to him as “David” and “Martin." During one 2015 business trip to China, they offered him up to $300,000 a year for “consulting services.” Hansen was, according to the government, to “attend conferences or exhibitions on forensics, information security, and military communications and to conduct product research.” The money, in turn, would be funneled to him by David and Martin by “overpaying him for purchases of computer forensic products.” The felony complaint says that Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, had been struggling financially, living primarily off his $1,900-a-month DIA pension and facing debts of more than $150,000. In June of this year, FBI agents arrested a Utah man as he prepared to fly to China and charged him with attempting to pass national defense information to China. While it often relies on ideology or coercion in pressuring ethnic Chinese to spy on its behalf abroad, China has proved particularly successful in luring Westerners with cash. Spies want to be paid for their work, or believe in the cause, or can be blackmailed, or want the ego boost that comes with leading a double life. Professionals often summarize the motives for espionage with the acronym MICE: money, ideology, coercion, and ego. Once intelligence officers identify potential recruits, they then examine how they might encourage those targets to spy. Seven of them were either currently employed or had recently retired from US defense contractors, according to the US government. (The sites limit purchases to US-based consumers, so they were inaccessible to Yanjun Xu himself.)Īll eight of the targeted individuals were ethnic Chinese who worked in science or technology. He attached eight PDFs of background reports downloaded from sites like Intelius, Instant Checkmate, and Spokeo, which compile public records on individuals for purchase online. In a 2015 email, Ji Chaoqun wrote that he was enclosing “eight sets of the midterm test questions for the last three years,” according to court documents. Yet according to the government’s criminal complaint, Ji Chaoqun had less pure motives at heart than service: He had allegedly been recruited at a Chinese job fair while in college to join a “confidential unit” and work as a “spotter” for Yanjun Xu, helping the MSS officer identify potential recruits and providing background reports on at least eight potential spies. This year has already seen a rash of cases of Americans allegedly recruited to spy on China’s behalf. ![]() The feds believe that the suspect, Yanjun Xu, spent years cultivating a person he thought was a potential asset inside GE Aviation, which makes closely held jet engine technology. That arrest marks the first time the US has prosecuted an officer of China's Ministry of State Security. In fact, it's the third time since September alone that the US government has charged Chinese intelligence officers and spies, including one of its biggest coups in years: The extradition earlier this month of an alleged Chinese intelligence officer, caught in Europe, who will face a US courtroom. The case continues an impressive tempo from the Justice Department, as it continues to try curb China's massive, wide-ranging, and long-running espionage campaign. On Tuesday, the Justice Department unsealed new charges against 10 Chinese intelligence officers and hackers who it says perpetrated a years-long scheme to steal trade secrets from aerospace companies. Beware of Chinese spies offering laptops, women, or educational stipends-and especially watch out for odd LinkedIn requests. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |