A military police lieutenant and his former company leader have been indicted for allegedly passing classified documents to China in exchange for cryptocurrency payments.
To pay back a loan, a lieutenant surnamed Han (韓) and deputy squad leader with the military police in December 2022 allegedly met a Chinese handler online interested in buying classified materials, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement today.
He then made copies of sensitive military documents and sent them to the handler over Telegram, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Last year, he was transferred to another unit and no longer had access to internal documents, prosecutors said.
Therefore, in February of that year, he met the former commander of his company, surnamed Lin (林), who gave Han the login to his work computer at the base, they said.
Han obtained seven classified documents, including a manual for telecommunications defense, they said.
He made copies of the documents and removed them from the base with permission from Lin, then sent them to the Chinese handler, prosecutors said.
He received more than 8,000 Tether in total for the documents — a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of the US dollar, they said.
Han has been indicted on charges of corruption and contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法), while Lin was charged with leaking documents relating to the nation’s defense, the office said.
Prosecutors requested a heavy sentence for the two to serve as an example to others.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ching-hua
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