US Navy petty officer sentenced to prison for giving military secrets to the PRC

Thomas Zhao will spend 27 months in prison for giving military intelligence to a foreign agent.

A US Navy petty officer was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine for giving sensitive U. military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in exchange for bribes.

According to court documents, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, was arrested last summer and pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiring with the intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe.

“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his 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 to account for those crimes.”

Zhao, who worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and held a  security clearance, engaged in an illegal scheme to collect and transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the intelligence officer in violation of his official duties.

Between August 2021 and at least May 2023, Zhao received at least $14,866 in at least 14 separate bribe payments from the intelligence officer. In exchange for the illicit payments, Zhao secretly collected and transmitted to the PRC intelligence officer sensitive, information regarding US Navy operational security, military trainings and exercises, and critical infrastructure. Zhao entered restricted military and naval installations to collect and record this information

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Zhao also revealed plans for a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific theatre, operational orders and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system located in Okinawa, Japan.

He used sophisticated encrypted communication methods to transmit the information. He also destroyed evidence and concealed his relationship with the intelligence officer. Zhao’s conduct violated his official duties to protect such information and the oath he swore to protect the United States.

“Make no mistake, the PRC is engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the national security of the U.S. and its partners,” said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “Zhao chose to betray the oath he took to our country and put others at risk by providing sensitive U.S. information to a PRC intelligence official. 

"The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly shown it will freely break any law or norm to achieve a perceived intelligence advantage. Today’s sentencing demonstrates, yet again, the inability of China’s Intelligence Services to prevent the FBI and our vital partners from apprehending and prosecuting the spies China recruits.”

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