SALT LAKE CITY — A retired Army officer from Utah who admitted to spying and selling classified national defense information to China for hundreds of thousands of dollars will spend the next decade behind bars.

A federal judge sentenced Ron Rockwell Hansen, of Syracuse, to 10 years in prison Tuesday.

“Your honor, there simply are no words to accurately and wholly express the depth of regret I have for my decisions and actions. I am so sorry,” he said.

Hansen, 60, pleaded guilty in March to attempting to gather or deliver defense information as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. The charge carries a term of life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to recommend a 15-year sentence.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson reduced the prison time by a third, saying Hansen cooperated with the government and explained what he did and how he did it.

Prosecutor Robert Lund said the information Hansen provided is valuable to the U.S. government.

“It can be used to help us make sure we’re safer, that we know what our vulnerabilities are. We know what the Chinese government does to target Americans, how they use that information, what techniques they employ,” he said after the hearing.

In a packed courtroom, Hansen, a father of six, apologized to his wife and family for the “pain and damage I have caused,” and to his colleagues in the U.S. intelligence community and “my brothers and sisters in arms” in the military.

“They all deserve better from me,” Hansen said. “I would give anything to go back and change this. Anything.”

Hansen was originally charged with attempting to gather or deliver defense information; being an unregistered agent of a foreign government; three counts of bulk cash smuggling; eight counts of structuring money transactions; and two counts of smuggling goods from the United States. Prosecutors dropped all but one count as part of the plea deal.

The charge he admitted to stems from his arrest in Seattle on his way to the airport for a flight to China with classified information last June.

Though prosecutors agreed to a 15-year sentence, Lund said 10 years still serves as a deterrent. He said he hopes others would see that Hansen’s actions destroyed his life, publicly humiliated him and damaged all his relationships.

“I would assume that the prison population won’t view him very kindly as someone who betrayed America,” Lund said.

Hansen’s older brother, Don Hansen, told reporters that the family is pleased that Ron Hansen recognized his mistake and looks forward to moving on with their lives and dealing with the fallout. He said he disagrees with his brother being characterized by some as a traitor who should spend much more time in prison.

“It’s short-sighted and unqualified to make a statement like that,” he said.

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Retired Utah Army officer admits to trying to give classified info to Chinese

A retired Army officer from Utah admitted to selling classified national defense information to a Chinese intelligence agency as part of plea agreement in U.S. District on Friday.

Don Hansen said his brother spent 24 years in the military in many situations that “we’re not able to bring to light. It was a very unfortunate single event and we’re sorry that it ended this way, but we’re very pleased with the outcome.”

Hansen retired from the Army as a warrant officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence. The Defense Intelligence Agency hired him as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. He held a top secret clearance for many years and signed several nondisclosure agreements during his time at the agency and as a government contractor. He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian.

Authorities say Hansen was motivated by money.

“Ron Hansen was willing to betray his oath and his country for financial gain,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Haertel in Salt Lake City. “This case brings to light that not all spies are foreign adversaries.”

Court records show Hansen had built up about $200,000 in personal debt since 2012, the charges state. And his business, Nuvestack — a company that provided cloud computing information technology services — reported more than $1 million in losses in 2014, and failed to file taxes in 2015 and 2016, the charges state.

Prosecutors described Hansen as a “soft target” for recruitment by the Chinese and that they often go after someone in debt.

Hansen admitted in the plea agreement that agents of a Chinese intelligence agency approached him in 2014 and they began meeting regularly in China to find out what kind of information the agency wanted.

Court documents show Hansen was paid at least $800,000 over the years, including a $300,000 “consulting” fee. Lund said Hansen brought more money home from China but investigators were not able track it down

Hansen carried cash back from China and also used a sophisticated means to transmit money to businesses he owned using credit cards.

Hansen said he solicited national defense information from a Defense Intelligence Agency case officer who he knew the Chinese intelligence services would find valuable and agreed to be a conduit to sell it to the Chinese. He showed the case officer how to record and transmit classified information without detection, and explained how to hide and launder the payments.

The officer reported that information to the Defense Intelligence Agency and then acted as a confidential informant for the FBI.

On June 2, 2018, the officer gave Hansen the information he asked for, which was classified at the “SECRET/AIOFORN” level and contained classification markings, Hansen says in the plea agreement.

”The information related to the national defense of the United States in that it related to United States military readiness in a particular region and was closely held by the United States government,” Hansen said.

Hansen said he reviewed the information, took written notes and told the officer he would remember most of the details “and that I would conceal some notes about the material in the text of an electronic document that I would prepare at the airport before leaving for China.”

It was at that point in Seattle that agents arrested Hansen.

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