Ventura County Naval Base entrance. Shown in an undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense. (KTLA)
(NewsNation) — A U.S. Navy sailor from California who pleaded guilty in October to selling classified military information to Chinese agents has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine. Announced by the Ministry of Justice.
According to the Department of Justice, from August 2021 to at least May 2023, Petty Officer Wenheng Chao, 26, also known as Thomas Chao, was involved in Navy operational security, military training, exercises, and military operations. He allegedly provided intelligence officers with confidential, non-public information about infrastructure.
Mr. Zhao acknowledged that he told officers about plans for large-scale maritime training in the Pacific theater and about electrical diagrams and blueprints for a ground/air mission-oriented radar system in Okinawa, Japan.
The Justice Department said Zhao, who worked at the Ventura County Naval Base in Port Hueneme, was able to use encrypted communications to destroy evidence and conceal his relationship with intelligence agents. That’s what it means.
In exchange for this information, Zhao received at least $14,866 in at least 14 separate bribes, the ministry said.
He pleaded guilty to one count of colluding with a secret agent and one count of accepting bribes.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to protect our country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today he is being held accountable for those crimes.”
NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.