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.

    • TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id
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      1 day ago

      It’s pretty severe considering a fat orange pedo sells everything not nailed down to Russia and is somehow still in the Whitehouse.

    • iamthetot@piefed.ca
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      2 days ago

      I don’t know, seems a little harsh to me. I mean, I know a guy that sold secrets to anyone who complimented him and he got to be president.

    • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
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      2 days 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.

    • Luminous5481 [they/them]@anarchist.nexus
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      2 days ago

      It seems way too harsh. Shit, I’m American, and if I was in his position, I would have done the same. I got zero loyalty any state, let alone to a government that treats people the way the terrorist government of the US does.

  • village604@adultswim.fan
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    2 days ago

    What a moron. The amount of money it would require for me to destroy my life by selling government secrets would disrupt the global economy.

    Anything less wouldn’t be worth the risk. Just look at what they did to Snowden for doing it for free.

    • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      If you’re calling the heroic Mr. Snowden an idiot you can meet me behind the waffle house at 4pm for your ass kicking

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          1 day ago

          He gave up the entire life he’d built and is still experiencing some pretty severe consequences for revealing some pretty dark government secrets. I misquoted moron as idiot but don’t think either term belongs anywhere near that man or his actions. Noble is the best fit I’ve got, and I like to imagine that in a position to make that kind of impact I too would be willing to make those kinds of sacrifices

          • village604@adultswim.fan
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            1 day ago

            I wasn’t talking about Snowden; I just used him as an example of how the US government can ruin your life even if you aren’t profiting from it, so no amount of profit is worth the risk.

            • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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              1 day ago

              I think we’ve just got a significant gap in perspective man. There’s plenty of things in my life worth that risk and more, I hope you find some too. Good luck out there.

              “If you fear dying, you’re already dead”

                • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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                  24 hours ago

                  Nah, fuck money. Worth it to expose grave enough injustice or keep a family out of the camps for sure though. You see about the ICE employee roster getting leaked yesterday?