Woman accused of trying to sell German military secrets
An American woman has been charged with attempted treason for allegedly trying to sell German military secrets to a country outside Nato.
The German-born woman, a 43-year-old translator, was hired by a company to translate German military documents, federal prosecutors said.
Identified only as Michaela T, she allegedly decided to sell the documents to the intelligence service of a country outside the western defence alliance after she had problems in getting paid for the job.
She handed over the classified material during two meetings with a Canadian undercover investigator who posed as an agent for the third country, prosecutors said.
She was arrested in Germany during a visit to her parents in September and charged in Koblenz this week.
Prosecutors did not identify the company that hired the translator or the country that allegedly was interested in the material.
Investigators believe the documents contained “a state secret” whose betrayal to a foreign intelligence service would have raised a serious security threat to Germany.
