Former U.S. Defense Contractor Convicted of Attempting to Pass Military Secrets to Russia

In the United States, a former defense industry worker has been sentenced for attempting to commit espionage in favor of Russia.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that he was handed a prison term of 10.5 years and fined $25,000.

The case involves 67-year-old John Murray Rowe Jr., who resides in South Dakota.

He worked for nearly 40 years as a test engineer at several U.S. defense companies, specializing in electronic warfare technologies.

Rowe held various national security clearances from SECRET to TOP SECRET//SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) and worked on matters relating to U.S. Air Force electronic warfare technology, among other things.

In March 2020, Rowe told an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be an agent of the Russian government, that he was not loyal to the United States and that he was interested in helping Russia.

During this meeting, Rowe disclosed national defense information classified as SECRET that concerned specific operating details of the electronic countermeasure systems used by U.S. military fighter jets, among other things.

However, the man did not know that he was not speaking with a Russian agent, but with an undercover FBI agent.

Over the course of the next eight months, Rowe exchanged over 300 emails with a person he believed to be a Russian agent, confirming his willingness to work for the Russian government and discussing his knowledge of classified information relating to U.S. national security.

In September 2020, Rowe held a second in-person meeting with the undercover FBI agent, during which he again disclosed classified military information. He was identified as a potential insider threat at the company where he worked and was subsequently dismissed.

After his arrest in December 2021, John Rowe pleaded guilty to attempting to transfer national defense information to a foreign government.

While in pretrial detention, he made phone calls from jail during which he once again revealed classified national defense information related to the U.S. Air Force.