WASHINGTON (AFP) — A Taiwan-born American who admitted spying for China was given more than 15 years in prison, the US Justice Department said Friday.
Tai Shen Kuo, 58, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced by federal court in Virginia to 188 months in prison, and required to forfeit 40,000 dollars, after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to deliver US military information to China.
Kuo was charged as a part of a small ring that included a Chinese woman, Yu Xin Kang, and former Pentagon analyst Gregg Bergersen, that obtained secret information mainly on US military sales to Taiwan and US military communications security and sought to provide the information to Beijing.
The three were arrested earlier this year in the case, which spanned from March 2007 to February 2008, when the three were arrested.
Yu Xin Kang, the intermediary between Kuo and Bergersen, pleaded guilty to charges of aiding an undeclared foreign government agent and was sentenced on August 1 to 18 months in prison.
Bergersen, a security and defense weapons systems analyst for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which implements the Pentagon's foreign military sales program, was sentenced to more than five years in jail last month for handing secret military documents to Kuo.
"During the course of the conspiracy, Kuo cultivated a friendship with Bergersen, bestowing on him gifts, cash payments, dinners, and trips to such places as Las Vegas," the Justice Department said in a statement.
"Kuo also led Bergersen to believe that he would make Bergersen a part owner or an employee of a company selling US defense technology to Taiwan after Bergersen's retirement from government service," it said.
The Justice Department said that Bergersen was unaware that Kuo was handing over the documents he shared to a Chinese official.
"The (Chinese) official directed Kuo to collect specific documents and information and paid him approximately 50,000 dollars for completing those tasks," the department said.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
