US State Department employee charged with sharing sensitive information

Washington, US - The US Justice Department on Friday announced criminal charges against a State Department employee accused of sharing sensitive government information with people he met online, according to a criminal complaint.

Michael Charles Schena, 42, was charged with conspiring to gather and transmit U.S. national defense information to people not authorized to receive it.

Schena, who hasworked at State Department headquarters in Washington, held a top secret security clearance and had access to information up to the secret level, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Schena, a South Caribbean desk officer, has not yet entered a plea.

His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a State Department spokesperson did not immediately comment.

He accepted payments in return for sharing information with people he met through "various communication platforms" beginning in April 2022, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Surveillance footage captured Schena photographing at least five diplomatic documents marked secret at a State Department work station last month, according to the complaint.

He was arrested the same day outside his Virginia home.

It is not immediately clear what the documents were or with whom they were shared. An invoice referenced in the criminal complaint referred to "CNY", which authorities said they believe to be a reference to China's yuan.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Daphne Psaledakis,Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)