The U.S. Justice Department
released the below information:
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a
resident of Syracuse, Utah, and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
officer, was arrested Saturday afternoon on federal charges including the
attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic
of China. The FBI agents took Hansen
into custody while he was on his way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in
Seattle to board a connecting flight to China.
Assistant Attorney General
for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney John Huber for the District
of Utah, and Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart of the FBI’s Salt Lake City
Field Office announced the charges.
“Ron Rockwell Hansen is a
former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who allegedly attempted to transmit
national defense information to the People's Republic of China's intelligence
service (PRCIS) and also allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars
while illegally acting as an agent of China,” said Assistant Attorney General
Demers. “His alleged actions are a
betrayal of our nation's security and the American people and are an affront to
his former intelligence community colleagues.
Our intelligence professionals swear an oath to protect our country’s
most closely held secrets and the National Security Division will continue to
relentlessly pursue justice against those who violate this oath.”
“These allegations are very
troubling in their description of conduct that runs contrary to how we identify
ourselves as Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Huber. “On the other hand, revealed details of this
lengthy investigation reflect effective performance and dedication on the part
of the men and women of the FBI and their partners.”
“The allegations in this
complaint are grave as it appears Mr. Hansen engaged in behavior that betrayed
his oath and his country,” said Special Agent in Charge Barnhart. “This case drives home the troubling reality
of insider threats and that current and former clearance holders will be targeted
by our adversaries. The FBI will
aggressively investigate individuals who put our national security at risk.”
Hansen will have an initial
appearance Monday, at 5 p.m. EDT in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He is charged in a 15-count complaint, signed
by Chief Federal Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner in Utah Saturday, with
attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign
government. The complaint also charges
Hansen with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, bulk cash
smuggling, structuring monetary transactions and smuggling goods from the
United States.
According to court documents:
Hansen retired from the U.S.
Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human
intelligence. He speaks fluent
Mandarin-Chinese and Russian. DIA hired
Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many
years, and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA
and as a government contractor.
Between 2013 and 2017, Hansen
regularly traveled between the United States and China, attending military and
intelligence conferences in the U.S. and provided the information he learned at
the conferences to contacts in China associated with the PRCIS. Hansen received payments for this information
by a variety of methods, including cash, wires and credit card
transactions. He also improperly sold
export-controlled technology to persons in China. From May of 2013 to the date of the complaint,
Hansen received not less than $800,000 in funds originating from China.
In addition, Hansen
repeatedly attempted to regain access to classified information after he
stopped working on behalf of the U.S. Government. Hansen’s alerting behavior ultimately
resulted in the participation of a law enforcement source from whom Hansen
solicited classified information. Hansen
disclosed to the source his ongoing contact with the PRCIS, including in-person
meetings with intelligence officers during his trips to China. Hansen told the source the types of
information his contacts in China were interested in and discussed working with
the source to provide such information to the PRCIS. Hansen suggested he and the source would be
handsomely paid.
Complaints are not findings
of guilt. An individual charged in a
complaint is presumed innocent unless or until convicted of the crimes in
court. Hansen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, if convicted of
attempted espionage. The maximum
potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here
for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be
determined by the assigned judge.
Special agents of the FBI,
IRS, U.S Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, U.S. Army
Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency are involved in the
investigation. U.S. Army
Counterintelligence, the FBI Seattle Division, the IRS, the U.S. Department of
Commerce, and the Weber County Sheriff’s Office assisted in law enforcement
operations Saturday in Utah and Seattle.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Robert A. Lund, Mark K. Vincent and Karin Fojtik of the District of Utah, and
Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy and Adam L. Small of the National Security
Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the
case. Prosecutors from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this
case.
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