A 25-year-old Chinese-born man will likely spend the rest of his life in jail—and he can thank his mother!

Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, was convicted in California on six charges, “including espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage and unlawful export of classified data,” according to a statement from the Southern District of California’s US Attorney’s Office on Thursday. The statement noted that Wei had been acquitted of one charge of naturalization fraud—which, if he had been convicted, might have resulted in the loss of his citizenship.

Wei, a naturalized US citizen serving in the US Navy, passed information about the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2) to China.

“The defendant’s actions represent an egregious betrayal of the trust placed in him as a member of the US military. By trading military secrets to China for cash, he jeopardized not only the lives of his fellow sailors but also the security of the entire nation and our allies,” said US Attorney Adam Gordon.

Wei will be sentenced on December 1. The statutory maximum penalty for the Espionage Act counts is life imprisonment.

Wei received more than $12,000 over 18 months from March 2022 to August 2023 for sharing the information........

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