Posted on 10/16/2025 8:24:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent.
“We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference.
“In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.”
State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested on Oct. 12, was accused of removing classified information and meeting with Chinese regime officials.
A former State Department employee, Michael Schena, was arrested in March and sentenced on Sept. 4 for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to Chinese authorities.
In August, two Chinese nationals were arrested and accused of smuggling sensitive AI chips, subject to export controls, to China.
In June, two Chinese nationals were arrested on charges of spying for Chinese intelligence operations.
In September, an Armenian national was charged with conspiring to export goods and information that would help with semiconductor manufacturing to Russia.
On Aug. 6, Taylor Adam Lee, an active duty soldier, was arrested on charges of attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary, Russia.
In March, two Iranian nationals were charged with conspiring to supply drones and launder money for the IRGC, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Patel also said there have been 125 counterterrorism cases this year, compared to 100 last year. And he cited increased disruptions of cybercrime enterprises.
“This year, you already have 52 arrests. Fifty-two arrests of violent cyber criminals who are stealing from senior citizens, who are violating our children’s rights and freedoms, and who are violating everyday Americans,” he said.
U.S. law enforcement, cooperating with UK law enforcement, announced the seizure of $15 billion in bitcoin from a Cambodian cyberscam ring on Oct. 14. This represents the largest-ever digital currency seizure by U.S. law enforcement.
Chen Zhi and his Prince Group conglomerate allegedly engaged in a massive wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy via at least 10 slave labor scam compounds across Cambodia.
The scam ring also used networks around the world, according to the Justice Department, and one such branch in Brooklyn was responsible for laundering millions of dollars taken from more than 250 victims in the United States.
Funny how this happens when you stop spying on school board meetings.
Now that the US is enforcing its laws under President Donald J. Trump.
Not going up, just finally looking for it and not hiding it when the bribes clear.
No More Kings!
Well, gee whiz. Keep letting non-vetted foreign students in our colleges and see what happens. I recently read that roughly 5k of Chinese student had connections to the CCP.
Not surprising, when you stop be coup plotting and start doing your job.
How about cracking down on our own home grown 5th column?
This is well known. DC is openly wall to wall AIPAC traitors with a few more covert types walking among them. You shouldnt be able to swing a dead cat without hitting an enemy agent. You need to try harder Patel.
Did any of them have the last name of xiden😎
And separate Chinese nationals and their American progeny to grandchildren from employment in defense industries, the military and any other sensitive areas, including romantic attachment to legislators. They are smart, competent,hard workers. They also have family in China who are always hostages to their kin in America’s co-operation with the CCP. Chinese and other East Asians have much more attachments to family and clan than do Americans and, to a lesser extent, Europeans.
Yup—this is not alarming.
This is good news.
All Chinese students are told that their families in China are hostage to their cooperation with Chinese interests. They must forward to China just about all information they encounter of industrial, military, educationsl, etc. interest. The 5k are tasked with aiming for certain university majors of particular interest to the CCP.
It’s alarming taht arrests for espionage are up?
I’d think it would be alarming if they were down. That would mean more people were getting away with it.
It’s a GOOD thing they’re cracking down.
It’s the opposite of alarming. They’re probably catching up with all the spies that have been taking advantage of us for a long time.
It is astounding to me that our gov. allows this crap. Let’s just let the foxes into the chicken coop.
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