Four Charged With Espionage For Trading Secrets to China

Federal agents arrested four people on espionage charges Monday and accused them of passing classified information to China in two separate cases, one involving the space shuttle.

The espionage charges included details about the Space Shuttle and U.S. military sales to Taiwan.

Tai Shen Juo, 58, and Yu Xing Kang, 33, both of New Orleans, and Gregg William Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Virginia, were seized on suspicion of passing US defense secrets to China.

In the second case, former Boeing engineer Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, 72, was arrested for stealing trade secrets from the company, including information relating to the space shuttle and other programs, including the C-17 military transport aircraft and the Delta IV rocket, and relaying the information to China.

Kuo, 58, is accused of having worked under the direction of a Chinese official to obtain classified US defence information from Bergersen, 51, a Department of Defence employee. Bergersen was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiracy to disclose national defense information. He is a weapons policy analyst at the Arlington-based Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Court documents said that Kuo obtained classified documents from Bergersen, often in exchange for cash, at a series of meetings across Northern Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina and Las Vegas. Much of the information was about U.S. military sales to Taiwan, the court documents said.

Kuo and Kang face up to life in prison if convicted. Bergersen, of Alexandria, faces up to 10 years in prison.