Sgt. Korbein Schultz, shown here in an Army video screenshot from Aug. 30, 2021, was sentenced to seven years on April 23, 2025, for selling classified military information to an individual believed to be working for the Chinese government. (Ryan Rayno/U.S. Army)
A 25-year-old Army sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for selling classified military information about weapons, aircraft and tactics to an individual believed to be affiliated with the Chinese government, the Justice Department announced that day.
Korbein Schultz, of Wills Point, Texas, pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information, unlawfully exporting controlled information to China and accepting bribes in exchange for sensitive, U.S. government information.
Schultz, an intelligence analyst with the 506th Infantry Battalion who had a top-secret clearance, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
He was paid $42,000 for passing on information from 2022 until his arrest in March 2024 at Fort Campbell, Ky., according to the DOJ.
Schultz’s motive for selling secrets was apparently not limited to simply making money.
He at one point told his handler that he “wished he could be Jason Bourne,” according to the indictment filed March 6, 2024.
Schultz and his Chinese contact had attempted to expand their espionage ring by recruiting one of Schultz’s friends, an Army intelligence analyst assigned to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the news release states.
The information he sold, according to the indictment, included:
• His Army unit’s operational order before it deployed to Eastern Europe in support of NATO operations
• Lessons the Army learned from the Ukraine-Russia conflict that would be applicable in the defense of Taiwan in the event of an attack by China
• Technical manuals for the HH-60 helicopter, F-22A fighter jet and intercontinental ballistic missile systems
• Details on U.S. military exercises in South Korea and the Philippines
• Information on U.S. military satellites and missile defense systems such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD
• Tactics for countering drones in large-scale combat operations.
The Chinese handler had initially contacted Schultz through an internet platform that connects freelancers with clients, the news release states.
The contact claimed to be with a geopolitical consulting firm, according to the DOJ. As the relationship progressed, the handler pressed harder for sensitive and classified information, while offering higher payments for such materials than for open-source information.
“Protecting classified information is paramount to our national security, and this sentencing reflects the ramifications when there is a breach of that trust,” Brig. Gen. Rhett Cox, head of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in the release.
“This Soldier’s actions put Army personnel at risk placing individual gain above personal honor,” he said.
