A former US Defence Department official was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of spying for China and lying to investigators, the Justice Department said Friday, dpa reported.
James Fondren Jr, 62, was accused of providing classified Pentagon documents to a naturalized US citizen from Taiwan, Tai Shen Kuo, who had close contacts to an unnamed Chinese government official. Fondren was also in email contact with the Chinese official and met him during a visit to the Asian power in 1999.
Fondren provided classified information to Kuo between 2004 and 2008, while he served as the deputy director of the Washington liaison office of US Pacific Command. The Justice Department did not describe the type of documents that were transferred.
Fondren also allegedly lied to the FBI, telling investigators that everything he wrote and provided to Kuo was based on information in the media and his own experiences.
Fondren was convicted of the charges in September and sentenced Friday to three years in prison and two years of probation.
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