A Utah man who formerly worked as a military intelligence officer is accused of spying for China.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, of Syracuse, was arrested Saturday in Seattle just before he boarded a flight to China, authorities said.
Rockwell is accused of trying to transmit U.S. defense information to China’s intelligence service and receiving $800,000 “while illegally acting as an agent of China,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said in a written statement Monday.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Hansen was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2006 after he had retired from the U.