US citizen pleads guilty to spying for the People's Republic of China – agent was tasked with stealing information from DoJ to help launch cyber espionage campaign
- American citizen Thomas Pauken pleads guilty to spying for China
- Acted as a paid middleman collecting sensitive US information
- Faces up to 10 years in prison; sentencing set for Sept 2026
A 50-year-old American citizen has pleaded guilty to spying for China, and against the United States of America, and is now looking at a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years.
An announcement published on the website of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) stated Thomas Weir Pauken II conspired with multiple individuals and served as a middleman in data exfiltration.
Citing court documents, the DoJ said that in 2017, Pauken met with an unidentified person known only as ‘Cathy’. This person gave Pauken hardware (laptops, phones), told him who to meet, what kind of information to gather, and to report back to her.
Selling data to the Chinese
Cathy paid Pauken at least $100,000 for his effort...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to techradar.com. To see the full text click HERE
