A U.S. Department of State employee has been 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.
“The price of Michael Schena’s disgraceful betrayal of his country is far more than the paltry amount for which he traded his honor,” said Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “His acts of selfish avarice left that price to be paid by the faithful women and men of our intelligence community and the nation they serve. The cost Schena will pay is the loss of his integrity, his reputation, and, by today’s sentence, his freedom.”
“The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top Secret security clearance. He will spend years of his life in prison for passing classified information to individuals he believed to be Chinese government agents,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Today’s sentence serves as a warning to those who would violate the trust placed in them by our Nation and double-cross the American people.”
“Michael Schena deliberately undermined U.S. national security and put American lives at risk by selling classified information to the Chinese Government,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “The Chinese government continues to aggressively target U.S. government employees to steal our classified information, and this sentencing makes clear the FBI and our partners will do everything in our power to defend the Homeland. Anyone thinking of betraying their oath to the United States should consider the severe consequences and know the FBI will work tirelessly to bring them to justice.”
"As a State Department employee, Schena's mission should have been to promote U.S. security and prosperity throughout the world, but instead he jeopardized national security by transmitting classified information to individuals whom he believed worked for an adversarial government," said Daniel Wierzbicki, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Counterintelligence and Cyber Division. "As today's sentencing demonstrates, the U.S. government remains committed to investigating and prosecuting clearance holders who seek to cash in on our nation's secrets."
Court documents show that starting in April 2022, Michael Charles Schena communicated with people online using various platforms and provided sensitive government information in exchange for money. Two contacts claimed they worked for international consulting companies but showed signs they represented interests linked with China.
In August 2024, Schena met someone at a hotel in Peru who gave him $10,000 along with a cellphone intended for use in receiving assignments as well as imaging and sending sensitive material.
By October 2024 while at work, Schena had photographed and sent at least four documents containing national defense information marked SECRET level classification. In February 2025 surveillance video recorded him again using that cellphone—this time photographing seven more SECRET-level documents containing national defense data before FBI agents seized it prior to transmission.
Schena was arrested after agents intervened before any additional photographs could be sent.
U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff handed down today’s sentence following these events.
The investigation was led by the FBI Washington Field Office with support from other agencies including FBI Richmond Field Office, Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Office of Counterintelligence.
Prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Ben’Ary and Gavin R. Tisdale from Eastern District of Virginia together with Trial Attorney Maria Fedor from National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
More details can be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Virginia or through PACER under Case No. 1:25-cr-158.
