Navy reservist Raymond Zumba admitted to a federal judge that he had tried to bribe an official who is the spouse of a former shipmate he had served with previously while on active duty. He attempted to pay $3,500 to the official in exchange for identification cards that would grant access to military bases.  (U.S. Navy photo)

A Navy reservist this week pleaded guilty to bribing a Naval Air Station Jacksonville official to provide fraudulent military identification cards to two ineligible individuals with links to China, according to the Justice Department.

Raymond Zumba admitted to a federal judge that he had tried to bribe an official who is the spouse of a former shipmate he had served with previously while on active duty. He attempted to pay $3,500 to the official in exchange for making the “real, but unauthorized” identification cards that would grant access to military bases, according to the DOJ. The IDs were for two individuals, including a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China and a Chinese national who the Justice Department accused of entering the United States without authorization and living under an assumed name.

Zumba, 27, of New York City, faces up to 15 years in prison for the charge of bribery of a public official. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled, officials said.

Court Records show Zumba first approached the former shipmate in a Jacksonville, Fla., bar in November to tell him that he had married a Chinese national and inquire whether the sailor would be willing to house Chinese nationals for money. The former shipmate was not named in court documents, but he had previously served with Zumba aboard the USS Carney guided-missile destroyer, which is based at Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville.

Zumba previously served on active duty as an enlisted operations specialist, according to the Navy. He had served at least one deployment aboard the ship to the Middle East.

After visiting Hong Kong in December 2024, Zumba again approached the former shipmate and asked whether the sailor’s spouse could produce real Common Access Cards, the standard Defense Department identification cards, for his new wife’s parents in exchange for money, according to court documents. He later changed the request to uniformed service IDs, which are issued to military family members and retirees and give them access to installations, benefits and privileges.

The former shipmate alerted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which instructed the sailor and his wife to continue working with Zumba, according to court documents.

On Feb. 13, Zumba traveled to Florida with the two China-linked individuals and met with the former shipmate’s spouse after hours in the NAS Jacksonville personnel office, which had been outfitted with cameras and recording devices, to complete the ID card-making process, according to court documents.

The next day, Zumba met with the former shipmate who provided the two ID cards in exchange for the $3,500. Zumba was immediately arrested, and the ID cards were recovered, according to DOJ.

Court documents did not name the two Chinese-born individuals. It was not clear Thursday whether either had been charged in the case.

The guilty plea comes as China has been repeatedly accused of attempting to spy on American military bases. DOJ this week charged two Chinese nationals with spying on a military recruiting facility in California and a Navy base in Washington for the Chinese government.

In 2023, two Navy sailors were arrested on espionage charges after the DOJ accused them of providing sensitive military information to China.

NCIS Special Agent in Charge Norman Dominesey of the agency’s southeast field office said Zumba intentionally acted “to compromise the safety of our warfighters and the security of critical military infrastructures for personal gain.”