Coast guard officer sentenced to 6 years for selling classified documents

Taipei/Kaohsiung, Nov. 25 (CNA) A coast guard official was sentenced to six years and two months in prison by a Kaohsiung court on Monday for selling classified information to a Chinese national.

The Ciaotou District Court found the defendant, identified by her surname Wu (吳), guilty of committing bribery-related offenses while she was working at the Southern Branch of Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) in 2023.

Investigators from the Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office said the suspect took photos of classified documents stored on a work computer relating to drill records and work reports.

She then sent them to a Chinese national, identified by their surname Wang (王), in exchange for digital currency worth more than NT$70,000 (US$2,155), prosecutors said.

Wu also made an agreement with Wang to gather national secrets relating to critical infrastructure and defense plans for Taiwan's outlying islands in exchange for NT$500,000, according to prosecutors.

From December 2023, Wu used a messaging app to try to gather this information from personnel in the CGA, but her attempts were unsuccessful, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, Wu was sentenced to six years and two months in prison and deprived of her civil rights for three years. The ruling can be appealed.

The court said Wu was motivated to collect and sell sensitive information because she was in debt, adding that her actions had harmed Taiwan's national security.