John Murray Rowe Jr., a former defense contractor from Lead, South Dakota, was sentenced in Philadelphia to 126 months in prison for attempted espionage. U.S. District Judge John M. Gallagher also imposed three years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine.
Rowe, 67, had worked for nearly four decades as a test engineer with various defense contractors and held security clearances ranging from SECRET to TOP SECRET//SCI. He was terminated after several security violations and suspicious inquiries about Russia and sensitive information.
Court documents indicate that in March 2020, Rowe met with an undercover FBI agent he believed represented the Russian government. During this meeting, he disclosed classified details about U.S. Air Force electronic warfare technology and indicated his willingness to help Russia. Over the following eight months, Rowe exchanged more than 300 emails with the agent and provided further classified information regarding U.S. national security.
In one email to the supposed Russian contact, Rowe wrote: “If I can’t get a job [in the United States] then I’ll go work for the other team.” He continued to share classified information during subsequent meetings and even while detained pending trial, discussing restricted details on recorded calls with relatives and an associate.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf commented: “Despite his knowledge, training, experience, and decades of work as a military contractor, Rowe chose to betray the trust placed in him by his country. His repeated, willful efforts to harm the U.S. by divulging sensitive defense information to an adversary are inexcusable. My office and our partners will continue to hold fully accountable anyone seeking to compromise the national security of the United States.”
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg added: “The defendant spent decades working on sensitive U.S. defense programs and was entrusted with safeguarding protected and classified information about military technology. Instead of honoring that trust and his legal responsibilities as a clearance holder, he chose to violate both – repeatedly and willfully attempting to disclose classified information to someone he believed was a foreign agent... The Justice Department will hold accountable those who disregard country and conscience at the expense of our Nation’s security, including, as here, out of spite.”
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office with support from multiple agencies including local police departments in South Dakota; federal offices such as the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations; Defense Counterintelligence; Security Agency; FBI offices in Minneapolis; Rapid City (S.D.) Resident Agency; as well as legal teams from both Philadelphia and South Dakota.
