FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (WKRN) — A former Army intelligence analyst stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky has been sentenced to prison for selling sensitive military information to a foreign national in China, the Department of Justice announced.
Last year, the Department of Justice said Korbein Schultz pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license and bribery of a public official.
On Wednesday, the DOJ announced that Schultz was sentenced 84 months in prison for those charges.
“This sentencing is a stark warning to those who betray our country: you will pay a steep price for it,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in the announcement. “The People’s Republic of China is relentless in its efforts to steal our national defense information, and service members are a prime target.”
Court documents revealed that between May 2022 and March 2024, Schultz conspired to provide a foreign national “likely connected to the Chinese government” with sensitive military documents in exchange for about $42,000. The DOJ said that Schultz was “fully aware of the grave national security implications” what he was doing, which included transmitting documents containing information including: technical manuals for missile systems and aircraft; documents outlining secret military exercises; details about military satellites; and “tactics” for countering drone attacks, among other classified information.
The DOJ said the foreign national had initially posed as a “a client from a geopolitical consulting firm” when first contacting Schultz. This person had asked Schultz to provide classified details before making more specific requests. The DOJ said Schultz was complicit in supplying some of this information after a financial agreement was made.
Schultz was also accused of trying to recruit an analyst with the Department of Defense’s Indo-Pacific Command — described by the DOJ as a friend of his — to get in on the scheme. It was unclear how this analyst responded to the attempts.
“Those who collaborate with America’s foreign adversaries put our country, and those who defend it, at grave risk and we will do whatever it takes to hold them accountable for their crimes,” acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire for the Middle District of Tennessee said. “We will proudly stand in support of our men and women in uniform and work diligently to protect them from people like the defendant who would sell them out for a few bucks.”