SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former U.S intelligence officer who pleaded guilty to trying to sell secrets to China has been sentenced to ten years in prison after admitting that foreign agents targeted him for recruitment.
The 60-year-old Ron Rockwell Hansen said Tuesday during a hearing in Salt Lake City that there were no words to describe the “depths of regret” he had for his actions.
In March Hansen pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government. Prosecutors have said he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for providing information to Chinese agents from 2014-2018.
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson threw out an earlier plea agreement that called for a 15-year sentence considering Hansen’s cooperation with federal investigators.
Hansen’s illegal activity occurred several years after he retired from the U.S. government, but he still had access to classified information.
