A U.S. citizen pleads guilty to spying for the People's Republic of China: The agent was tasked with stealing information from the Justice Department to help launch a cyberespionage campaign.

US citizen Thomas Pauken pleads guilty to spying for China
Acted as a paid intermediary collecting sensitive US information.
He faces up to 10 years in prison; sentencing set for September 2026

A 50-year-old American citizen has pleaded guilty to spying for China and against the United States of America and now faces a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years.

An announcement posted on the US Department of Justice (DoJ) website claimed that Thomas Weir Pauken II conspired with several people and acted as an intermediary in the data exfiltration.

Citing court documents, the Justice Department said that in 2017, Pauken met with an unidentified person known only as ‘Cathy.’ This person gave Pauken hardware (laptops, phones), told him who to meet with, what type of information to collect, and to report back.

Sell data to the Chinese

Cathy paid Pauken at least $100,000 for his efforts and paid for multiple trips from China to the United States to meet with these people and obtain necessary intelligence.

Pauken also said that he worked with two more people, named ‘Richard’ and ‘William’, who told him that the reports he was preparing were going to Japan. He believed they also worked for the Chinese government.

Pauken also apparently sold reports to a group of Wuhan Chinese, interested in information about technology and the Department of Justice. These people were also interested in finding an expert hacker for espionage campaigns.

“In effect, Pauken admitted to being part of a conspiracy to obtain confidential information from the United States government to the People’s Republic of China,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

“Their actions are a betrayal of this nation and pose an unacceptable risk to our national security. NSD remains committed to safeguarding information essential to our national security, including through appropriate processing.”

Pauken is scheduled to be sentenced on September 1, 2026, where he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“By his own admission, Thomas Pauken not only attempted to infiltrate American political circles under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, but he gathered intelligence on his American targets and reported it to his handlers in Chinese intelligence,” said Deputy Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.

“This case illustrates the lengths to which the Chinese Communist Party will go to undermine our democratic institutions and degrade our political freedoms, but it also demonstrates the FBI’s determination to defend the homeland from threats to our national security. Let this plea serve as a clear warning: if you attempt to assist a foreign adversary as an unregistered agent in the U.S., the FBI will find you and bring you to justice.”