WASHINGTON — A Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing Co. were charged Monday in separate spy cases that accuse them of handing over military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said.
Additionally, two immigrants from China and Taiwan accused of working with the defense analyst were arrested after an FBI raid Monday morning on a New Orleans home where one of them lived.
The two cases — based in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles — have no connection, and investigators said it was merely a coincidence that charges would be brought against both on the same day.
The arrests mark China’s latest attempts to gain top-secret information about U.S. military systems and sales, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein.
He described China as “particularly adept, and particularly determined and methodical in their espionage efforts.”
An official at the Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the first case, prosecutors said weapons systems policy analyst Gregg W. Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Va., sold classified defense information to a New Orleans furniture salesman. In return, the salesman, a Taiwan native identified as Tai Kuo, a 58-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, forwarded the information to the Chinese government.
The data outlined every planned U.S. sale of weapons or other military technology to Taiwan for the next five years, prosecutors said.
A third alleged conspirator in the case, Chinese national Yu Xin Kang, 33, served as the go-between for Kuo and the People’s Republic of China, prosecutors say.
In the second, unrelated case, former Boeing engineer Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 72, was arrested on charges of working as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government who stole trade secrets from the defense contractor. The stolen data largely focused on aerospace programs, including the space shuttle, prosecutors said.
Chung, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was indicted last week on espionage, conspiracy and obstruction-of-justices charges that were unsealed Monday. He has been the subject of an FBI investigation for nearly a year as part of an inquiry into another Chinese-born engineer who was convicted in 2007 of stealing military data for the Chinese government.
As early as 1979, prosecutors said, Chinese officials were tasking Chung to collect data on U.S. aviation, including the space shuttle and various military and civilian aircraft.
At one point, Chung responded in a letter that he wanted to “contribute to the motherland,” according to the Justice Department.
