Military man sentenced to seven years in prison for selling classified information to China

An Army intelligence analyst was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for providing sensitive defense information to China, including documents on U.S. weapons systems and military tactics and strategies.

Sgt. Korbein Schultz, who had a clearance to access information considered top secret, was arrested in March 2024 at Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Schultz was sentenced after pleading guilty in August to sharing at least 92 sensitive U.S. military documents, the Justice Department said in a statement.

He admitted charges of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and bribery of a public official.

"This sentence is a stark warning to those who betray our country: they will pay a heavy price for it," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

According to the charging documents, Schultz provided dozens of sensitive U.S. military documents to a person residing in Hong Kong whom he believed was associated with the Chinese government.

He was paid $42,000 for the information, according to the Justice Department.

Schultz's arrest came less than a year after the arrests of two U.S. Navy sailors in California accused of spying for China.