Intelligence

Former TVA manager admits China paid him for nuclear secrets

A Tennessee Valley Authority senior manager, with access to sensitive information about nuclear development and production admits China paid him for secrets

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been conducting military and commercial espionage for quite some time against the United States, as well as other countries, in an attempt to capture sensitive intellectual property.  Why spend millions upon millions of dollars on creating a new technology when you can steal it for a few hundred thousand dollars?

A Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) senior manager, with access to sensitive information about the nuclear development and production, was arrested over a year ago for providing sensitive nuclear-related information to China.

“Ching Ning Guey has struck a deal to plead guilty to a charge of development of special nuclear material outside the U.S.” reported USA Today “The case, kept under seal for more than a year, is tied to an indictment announced earlier this month against a Chinese nuclear engineer and a Chinese-owned nuclear power plant alleging nuclear espionage.”

The TVA manager, Mr. Ching Ning Guey, provided information to his Chinese ‘handler’, Mr. Szuhsiung “Allen” Ho, who was arrested in April 2016.

Mr. Guey had met Mr. Ho, a Chinese nuclear engineer, at an event in the early 1990s. Mr. Guey was not recruited until 2004.  At that time, Mr. Guey was working for the Florida Power & Light nuclear plant – when he passed nuclear-related information concerning outage times.

Mr. Guey later went on to work at the TVA from 2010 to 2014.  It was during this time Mr. Guey was paid by the Chinese government for three key reports; reports which they were legally barred from having access.

The recent indictment brought against Mr. Ho, charges him, his company, and the China General Nuclear Power with conspiracy to commit espionage.  Mr. Ho was alleged to have attempted luring more than Mr. Guey to provide information on nuclear production programs.  Mr. Guey has admitted to his part in the crimes, and five other unidentified ‘American co-conspirators were listed in the indictment,’ according to USA Today.

Mr. Guey is cooperating with officials and reached a plea deal: admitting his guilt while being granted immunity for other offenses listed in the Ho indictment.  It is anticipated Mr. Guey will be a key witness in the prosecution of Mr. Ho and the other co-conspirators.  Mr. Ho’s trial date has been set for June 27th.

Written by: Dave Snell

Author Bio: Dave Snell, a retired naval officer, is a Security Professional with twenty years of experience working cyber intelligence, project management, and counter-terrorism operations. 

 

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – China, espionage)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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