A Fort Campbell intelligence analyst admitted to selling military information to a Chinese co-conspirator on Tuesday.
Korbein Schultz, who was a sergeant at the U.S. Army site just across the Kentucky border, pleaded guilty to all six felonies he was charged with five months ago.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger will sentence Schultz on Jan. 23. The three charges for unlawful export of defense articles to China carry the most severe possible punishment with a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine.
Schultz is also required to surrender any property or money “traceable” to his crimes, and he is prohibited from profiting off his crimes in the future.
“You can’t go out and write a book and make a million dollars,” Trauger told him.
An FBI special agent revealed new details of Schultz’ crimes as he read the facts of the case. While Schultz’ indictment had identified his co-conspirator in China as a purported geopolitical consulting firm employee, the FBI agent said Tuesday the person worked for the Chinese government.
The agent said Schultz realized at some point that the co-conspirator’s pretense of working for a consulting firm was a lie and that the person worked for the Chinese government. Mary-Kathryn Harcombe, Schultz’s appointed attorney, said he thinks while he ought to have known, he never fully realized this.
Some of the information Schultz sold his co-conspirator related to how the U.S. would respond to an invasion of Taiwan and what it learned from Russia’s war with Ukraine. He received $200 for providing the co-conspirator the document that provided that information. He also provided information about the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea and the Philippines.
The agent also said that Schultz tried to recruit a higher ranking Army employee into his scheme with the Chinese co-conspirator to get ahold of more sensitive information.
In a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch said the Chinese government is “aggressively targeting our military personnel.”
“This Soldier swore an oath to faithfully discharge his duties, to include protecting national defense information,” Brig. Gen. Rhett R. Cox, commanding general of the Army Counterintelligence Command, said in the news release. “Not only did he fail in his sworn duty, but he placed personal gain above his duty to our country and disclosed information that could give advantage to a foreign nation, putting his fellow Soldiers in jeopardy.”
In sum, Schultz gave away information about advanced military helicopters, high-mobility artillery rocket systems, defensive missile systems and Chinese military tactics, as well as the tactics, techniques and procedures manuals for the F-22A fighter jet and intercontinental missiles, in exchange for $42,000, prosecutors say.
The co-conspirator baited Schultz with promises of perks and leveraged his apparent love of auto racing and desire for wealth, based on the indictment. Schultz once told the co-conspirator he “wished he could be ‘Jason Bourne,'” according to his indictment.
Schultz, 25, appeared in court just before 1 p.m. Tuesday wearing a green jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles. Several onlookers, some of whom were from Fort Campbell, were seated in the gallery.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
