A 22-year-old US Army serviceman in Texas was arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempting to send classified information about American combat tanks to Russia, writes CNN.
Federal prosecutors claim that Taylor Adam Lee, who is an enlisted serviceman stationed at Fort Bliss and had access to top-secret information, offered assistance to Russia in June and sent technical documentation about the M1A2 Abrams tank over the internet.
According to prosecutors, Lee stated online that "the USA is displeased with me for trying to expose their weaknesses," and added that he is currently "ready to voluntarily assist the Russian Federation in any way."
In July, the serviceman attempted to provide confidential information about the tanks' vulnerabilities to a person he believed to be a Russian spy. At the end of the month, he delivered what appeared to be a piece of tank equipment to a warehouse in El Paso, Texas. After this, Lee sent a message in the messenger: "Mission accomplished."
In addition to violating the Espionage Act, which prohibits the unauthorized use of information related to national defense, Lee is also accused of attempting to export controlled technical data without a license, which is a violation of the Arms Export Control Act. According to court documents, the government is seeking to detain him without bail.
Deputy Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division Roman Rozhansky stated that Lee provided the information in exchange for Russian citizenship.