- Two Chinese spies attempted to bribe a U.S. government employee $61,000 in bitcoin to steal secret information
- Guochun He and Zheng Wang thought their target was a Chinese agent but was in fact a double agent
- The pair wanted information on an upcoming trial against Chinese communications company Company-1
Chinese government agents tried to bribe a U.S. double agent with $61,000 in Bitcoin according to charges by the Justice Department. The charge alleges that the two People’s Republic of China (PRC) intelligence officers attempted to obstruct a criminal prosecution in New York by paying what they believed were undercover Chinese spies to steal files and other information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. However, the agent was in fact a double working for the U.S., and shopped the two spies, who remain at large.
Target Was U.S. Double Agent
The criminal complaint was unsealed yesterday, charging Guochun He and Zheng Wang with allegedly orchestrating the scheme, which concerned the gathering of information relating to the ongoing federal criminal investigation and prosecution of a global telecommunications company, thought to be Huawei.
The agents offered to pay their target, a U.S. government employee who the pair believed had been recruited to work for the PRC, approximately $61,000 in Bitcoin bribes to steal the information. However, their man was in fact a double agent working on behalf of the FBI, referred to as GE-1 in the filing.
Pair Wanted Information on U.S. Attorney Investigation
He and Wang told GE-1 that they were particularly interested in knowing which Company-1 employees had been interviewed by the U.S. government and in obtaining a description of the prosecutors’ evidence, witness list, and trial strategy.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen called the efforts to interfere with the investigation “an extraordinary intervention by agents of a foreign government to interfere with the integrity of the U.S. criminal justice system, compromise a U.S. government employee, and obstruct the enforcement of U.S. law to benefit a PRC-based commercial enterprise.”
The two men are still at large and are the subject of an FBI manhunt.
