LOS ANGELES
An engineer who worked for a cleared defense contractor plead guilty Monday after he sold sensitive satellite information to a person he believed to be an intelligence agent for the Russians, according to officials.
Gregory Allen Justice, 49, of Culver City, who worked as an engineer on military and commercial satellite programs, pleaded guilty to one count of economic espionage and one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act, officials said.
Justice is facing up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 18. He has been in custody since July 2016, according to officials.
In addition to their proprietary nature, the documents contained technical data covered by the United States Munitions List and therefore were subject to controls restricting export from the United States under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
In exchange for providing these materials during a series of meeting between February and July of 2016, Justice sought and received thousands of dollars in cash payments.
During one meeting, Justice and the undercover agent discussed developing a relationship like one depicted on the television show “The Americans.”
During their final meeting, Justice offered to take the undercover agent on a tour of his employer’s production facilities where Justice said all military spacecraft were built, according to the plea agreement.