A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, including espionage. He was paid more than $12,000 for the information he sold, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was one of two California-based sailors charged on Aug. 3, 2023, with providing sensitive military information to China. The other, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to more than two years in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.

U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

Wei was recruited via social media in 2022 by an intelligence officer who portrayed himself as a naval enthusiast working for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, prosecutors said.

Evidence presented in court showed Wei told a friend that the person was “extremely suspicious” and that it was “quite obviously” espionage. Wei disregarded the friend’s advice to delete the contact and instead moved conversations with the intelligence officer to a different encrypted messaging app Wei believed was more secure, prosecutors said.

Over the course of 18 months, Wei sent the officer photos and videos of the Essex, advised him of the location of various Navy ships and told him about the Essex’s defensive weapons, prosecutors said.

Wei sold the intelligence officer 60 technical and operating manuals, including those for weapons control, aircraft and deck elevators. The manuals contained export control warnings and detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships.

He was a petty officer second class, which is a enlisted sailor’s rank.

The Navy’s website says the Essex is equipped to transport and support a Marine Corps landing force of over 2,000 troops during an air and amphibious assault.

In a letter to the judge before sentencing, Wei apologized and said he shouldn’t have shared anything with the person who he had considered a friend. Wei said “introversion and loneliness” clouded his judgment.

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Mac Martin Anderson, 59, of Corona was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Kenly Kiya Kato, who also ordered him to pay $482,833 in restitution.

Lee was a comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business that later became Marvel Comics. He was Marvel’s primary creative leader for two decades, expanding the enterprise from a small publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.

Lee died on Nov. 12, 2018, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 95.

According to his February plea agreement, from 2015 to 2018, Anderson had a personal relationship with Lee. That relationship was explored in film footage shot by Jon Bolerjack. The hundreds of hours of footage allegedly revealed that in his final years, Lee was being manipulated by people around him, including Anderson, who served as a manager for the Marvel icon.

In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter published a report that claimed Lee was a victim of elder abuse. It’s unclear whether those allegations led to federal inquiries into Anderson.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Anderson sold Marvel-related items bearing Lee’s autograph to dealers, brokers and fans, but never included revenues on tax filings.

For tax years 2015 through 2018, income from the sold memorabilia totaled $289,460, $452,269, $414,166, and $80,590, respectively, the DOJ reported.

In total, Anderson admitted to profiting approximately $1,236,485 in reportable income from the memorabilia sales, resulting in an IRS tax liability of approximately $482,833, according to the DOJ.

As part of his plea deal, Anderson agreed to pay the IRS the owed amount.

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Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, and Jing Dong, 47, were each found guilty on one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering.

According to evidence presented at a four-day trial, from at least January 2012 to March 2015, Liu and Dong ran a maternity house in Rancho Cucamonga. Their pregnant Chinese clients would come to the area, and waiting for them were apartments that Liu and Dong had rented across Southern California.

In addition to housing, other services Liu and Dong provided for the women were assistance on how to obtain visas to enter the United States, customs entry guidance, and transportation in the United States, as well as assistance applying for U.S. legal documents for the babies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Liu and Dong received money from their overseas clients to promote their scheme and advised the women on how to hide their pregnancies from the immigration authorities.

“Liu and Dong also knew — or deliberately avoided learning — that their customers lied on their visa applications submitted to immigration authorities to enter the U.S.,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Generally, their customers’ visa applications falsely stated that the trip to the United States was for tourism, when it was to give birth, and the length of the stay was days or weeks when it was, in fact, months. The visas also misstated the location where the pregnant women intended to stay, the Attorney’s Office alleged.

Liu and Dong or their agents also advised the women to fly to ports of entry that the pair perceived as having less customs scrutiny before flying to Los Angeles. The women were instructed to wear loose-fitting clothing and to favor certain lines at customs; they were also told how to answer customs officials’ questions, according to the Attorney’s Office.

Liu and Dong face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy count and up to 20 years for each international money laundering count. They are scheduled for sentencing Dec. 9.

Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the FBI investigated the case. The Irvine Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department assisted.

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