AFOSI investigates DOD official on espionage charges

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WASHINGTON --  A joint investigation conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation led to a Department of Defense official being charged with conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government.

A criminal complaint unsealed May 13 in the Eastern District of Virginia alleges that, from approximately November 2004 to February 11, 2008, James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., while serving as an employee of the DOD, unlawfully and knowingly conspired with others to communicate classified information to another person who he had reason to believe was an agent or representative of a foreign government.

Fondren worked at the Pentagon and is the Deputy Director, Washington Liaison Office, U.S. Pacific Command. He has been on administrative leave with pay since mid-February 2008 and has not performed any duties in or for PACOM since that time. Fondren turned himself in to federal agents and if convicted, faces a maximum five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Fondren retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force in May 1996. In February 1998, he began providing consulting services from his Virginia home. Fondren's sole client for his business was a friend, Tai Shen Kuo. Kuo was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Taiwan who lived primarily in Louisiana and maintained business interests in the United States and the People's Republic of China and maintained an office in the PRC.

Unknown to Fondren, Kuo worked under the direction of a PRC government official. This official provided Kuo with detailed instructions to collect certain documents and information from Fondren and other U.S. government officials.

Kuo introduced the PRC official to Fondren in approximately March 1999. Fondren maintained periodic e-mail correspondence with the official until at least March 2001. While Fondren was aware of Kuo's relationship with the PRC official, he was not aware of the official's precise status with the PRC government nor of his coded requests to obtain information.

According to the affidavit, the PRC official instructed Kuo to mislead Fondren into believing that he was providing information to Kuo for Taiwanese military officials. Nevertheless, he was aware that Kuo was providing information to an agent of a foreign government. Between November 2004 and February 11, 2008, Fondren provided Kuo with certain DOD documents and other information, some of which he obtained from classified online systems available to him by virtue of his employment at the Pentagon.

Fondren incorporated DOD information, including classified information, into "opinion papers" that he sold to Kuo through his home-based consulting business. Eight of the papers sold contained classified information. HE also provided Kuo with sensitive, but unclassified DOD publications.

According to the affidavit, Fondren allegedly provided Kuo with a variety of sensitive data, including classified information from a State Department cable, classified information about a PRC military official's U.S. visit, classified information about a joint U.S.-PRC naval exercise, and classified information regarding U.S.-PRC military meetings.

On February 11, 2008, Kuo was arrested on espionage charges. On the day of his arrest, Kuo was staying as a guest in Fondren's Virginia home and had among his possessions a draft, unclassified copy of a DOD document entitled "The National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2008." Fondren later admitted that he gave the draft National Military Strategy report to Kuo.

On May 13, 2008, Kuo pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to a foreign government, namely the PRC. He admitted he had obtained national defense information and that he sent it on to the PRC government official. Kuo was sentenced to 188 months in prison.

"Today's case is the result of an outstanding long-term counterespionage effort by many agents, analysts and prosecutors," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

"The conduct alleged in this complaint should serve as a warning to others in government who would compromise classified information and betray the trust placed in them by the American people," said Kris in a press statement.