Overview

• Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, received a 48‑month prison sentence for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to people he believed worked for China.
• Schena held a top‑secret security clearance with access to information classified at the secret level while working at State Department headquarters in Washington.
• According to court documents, he began sharing sensitive government information for money in April 2022 with contacts who presented themselves as international consultants.
• In October 2024 he used the Peru-provided phone at work to photograph and send at least four documents marked secret, and in February 2025 he was recorded photographing seven more before FBI agents seized the device and arrested him.
• The FBI Washington Field Office led the investigation with DOJ and State Department counterintelligence support, and officials framed the case as part of broader efforts to counter persistent targeting of U.S. personnel by the Chinese government.