A U.S. Army soldier has been arrested on charges of selling sensitive information related to U.S. military capabilities, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday.
Korbein Schultz, who is also an intelligence analyst, was accused in a six-count indictment of charges including conspiring to obtain and disclose military defence information and bribery of a public official. He was arrested at Fort Campbell, which straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky border, shortly after the indictment was released Thursday.
“The men and women of the United States Armed Forces dedicate their lives to maintain our national security,” Henry C. Leventis, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, told reporters.
“Our laws protecting national defence information are critical to that mission, and they must be enforced. Illegal dissemination of national defence information puts our country, our fellow citizens, members of our military and our allies at risk.”
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell said that Schultz had joined the regular army in 2018.
“Sgt. Korbein R. Schultz is an intelligence analyst currently assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault),” Lt.-Col. Tony Hoefler told CBC News via email.
Hoefler said Schutlz had previously been based out of Fort Cavazos in Texas and that the soldier’s “last and only operational deployment was to Eastern Europe.”
According to the indictment, Schultz — who had a top-secret security clearance — allegedly conspired with an individual identified only as “Conspirator A” to disclose various documents, photographs and other national defence materials since June 2022.
The indictment claims that Schultz was recruited by the individual not only due to his security clearance but also because he was tasked with gathering sensitive U.S. military information.
Some of the information that Schultz supposedly gave to the individual was related to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, hypersonic equipment, studies on future developments of U.S. military forces and studies on military drills and operations in major countries like China.
Ukraine war lessons sought: indictment
According to the indictment, Schultz was initially asked to provide documents detailing lessons that could be learned from Russia’s war with Ukraine and how they could be applied to the U.S. helping Taiwan in the event of an attack. Schultz was paid $200 US for that information, which then prompted Conspirator A to ask for a “long-term partnership.”
Conspirator A, who was described in the indictment as a foreign national purporting to reside in Hong Kong, later suggested that Schultz could earn more money if he handed over “internal-only” material rather than unclassified documents.
In total, Schultz received at least 14 payments totalling $42,000 US.
“The defendant and his co-conspirator also discussed recruiting another member of the U.S. military to join their conspiracy and to provide additional national defence information in order to conceal their illegal conduct,” Leventis said.
The case is the latest in a series of federal prosecutions of current or former U.S. military members accused of illegally disclosing sensitive government secrets.
For instance, in April 2023, Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was charged with leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games. He pleaded guilty on Monday in a deal with prosecutors that calls for him to serve at least 11 years in prison.
In August, two U.S. Navy sailors were charged with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material.
And more recently, the Justice Department announced charges this week against a civilian Air Force employee and retired Army lieutenant colonel for sharing classified information about the Ukraine war on a foreign dating site.