Patrick Wei, a former U.S. Navy sailor who sold manuals for ships and operating systems to an operative working for China, was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said.

A former U.S. Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said.

A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, including espionage. He was paid more than $12,000 for the information he sold, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was one of two California-based sailors charged on Aug. 3, 2023, with providing sensitive military information to China. The other, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to more than two years in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.

    • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
      3·
      14 hours ago

      I was watching something the other day, apparently spies aren’t so direct they do things a common scammer would do, Like offer a reporting job and have them write papers for a supposed news article and they just happen to be national secrets they get paid a lot of a money so it is still selling secrets but not enough to be absolutely absurd. You wouldn’t want someone in prison for the rest of their lives for a bout of incompetent.