Engineer accused of attempting to pass US secrets to Russia

An engineer who worked for decades as a federal defense contractor has been arrested on charges of trying to pass classified information to someone he thought was a Russian agent but who was actually an undercover FBI employee, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The FBI conducted an undercover operation against John Murray Rowe Jr., 63, of South Dakota, after being alerted that he had been fired from his job for security violations and because he had been identified as a potential insider threat, federal officials said.

As part of the investigation, Rowe traded more than 300 emails with an undercover FBI employee who approached him in March 2020 posed as a Russian agent, the government said. Rowe shared operational details about U.S. military fighter jets in one email, and in another, said: If I can't get a job here then I'll go work for the other team, according to court documents.

Court records do not list a lawyer for Rowe. Prosecutors say Rowe had worked for nearly 40 years as a test engineer for defense contractors and held security clearances.

Rowe was due in federal court in South Dakota on Friday. He was arrested Wednesday in Lead, South Dakota.