Department of State employee sentenced for transmitting national defense information to suspected Chinese government agents

A U.S. Department of State employee, Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed were working for the government of the People’s Republic of China. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, he began communications in April 2022 and provided sensitive government information in exchange for money.

In August 2024, he met an individual in a Peru hotel who gave him $10,000 and a cellphone intended for receiving taskings. In October 2024, while at work, he photographed and transmitted at least four SECRET documents; in February 2025 surveillance captured him using the Peru cellphone to photograph seven SECRET documents, with the FBI seizing the device before any transmission.

The FBI reiterated that Schena abused his Top Secret clearance and jeopardised national security by transmitting information to individuals he believed were Chinese government agents.