VIRGINIA – A judge sentenced Robert Patrick Hoffman II, 40, of Virginia Beach, Va., to 30 years in prison for attempting to commit espionage against the United States.
“By attempting to hand over some of America’s most closely held military secrets, Robert Hoffman put U.S. service members and this country at risk,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Carlin.
Adding, “ This prosecution should serve as a warning to others who would compromise our nation’s secrets. I commend the prosecutors, agents and analysts who worked diligently on this case.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said. “He was willing to place American lives at risk for personal gain.”
After a five day trial ended in August, a Norfolk jury found Hoffman guilty of attempted espionage, as charged in the one-count superseding indictment filed on May 8, 2013.
According to court records and evidence, Hoffman is a U.S. citizen born in Buffalo, N.Y., who served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy until retiring at the rank of Petty Officer First Class on Nov. 1, 2011, according to prosecutors
Authorities say Hoffman’s rating in the Navy was as a Cryptologic Technician – Technical.
In that capacity, he worked aboard or in conjunction with U.S. submarines for much of his naval career, officials said.
While deployed, Hoffman operated electronic sensors and systems designed to collect data and information about potential adversaries, scanned the operating environment for threats to the submarine, and provided technical and tactical guidance to submarine commanders, officials said.
Due to these duties, federal officials said Hoffman held security clearances and regularly received access to classified national defense information about U.S. submarines and their capabilities and equipment, about adversaries, about specific missions, and about U.S. military and naval intelligence.
In 2012, the FBI initiated an investigation to determine if Hoffman was willing to act as an agent for a foreign government and commit espionage against the United States by divulging classified information.
As part of this investigation, undercover FBI agents posing as operatives of the Russian Federation contacted Hoffman seeking defense information.
In a series of responsive emails and other communications, Hoffman advised that he looked forward to “renewing [a] friendship” with his purported Russian contact, was “willing to develop a mutual trust,” and wanted compensation for his activities in the form of job assistance or payments based upon the risk and effort involved, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hoffman also emphasized, however, that the need for “security [was] paramount” and suggested they communicate by physical, rather than insecure electronic means.
In accordance with this request, undercover agents posed a series of questions to Hoffman and directed, if he chose to reply, that he should signal his willingness to do so by means of a coded reply and then leave his answers on a pre-arranged date in the hollow at the base of a tree at a dead drop site located in Virginia Beach, Va.
On three occasions in September and October 2012, authorities said Hoffman did just that and filled the drop site with encrypted thumb drives containing answers to the questions posed to him by persons he believed to be Russian agents.
In his answers, Hoffman supplied, among other things, national defense information classified at the levels of secret and top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
Hoffman was arrested on Dec. 6, 2012.