NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — The Chinese national graduate student convicted in July for taking drone footage of Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding will serve six months in prison.
Fengyun Shi was flying the unmanned aircraft outside the 65th Street and Huntington Avenue Entrance of HII Newport News Shipbuilding when it got stuck in a tree.
The SD card showed footage captured of U.S. Navy vessels or vessels intended for use by the Navy, according to court documents.
This violates the Espionage Act, which prohibits a person of taking pictures of companies that manufacture classified military equipment.
Shi was sentenced to six months for both counts. They will run concurrently, meaning he only has to serve six months. The maximum penalty for the subset of charges of the Espionage Act that he violated would be about a year in prison.
“We appreciate the partnership with the law enforcement agencies that investigated this matter and of all involved to protect the critical national security work at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. We thank the court for its careful considerations of the national security issues and we are pleased that Mr. Shi was sentenced to six months in federal prison. We believe these type of drone flights damage our ability to protect the airspace above NNS and integrity of the work we do for the United States and we will remain committed to safeguarding the work we do for our nation.”
Statement from HII
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