NSA worker indicted on charges he shared secrets

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland announced Thursday that they have indicted a National Security Agency employee for allegedly sharing classified national defense secrets with a person working at a private company.

Mark Unkenholz of Hanover is charged with 13 counts of willfully transmitting classified materials and 13 counts of willfully storing classified materials in a place they aren’t meant to be. Prosecutors say Unkenholz, 60, used his personal email address on 13 separate occasions to send information classified as SECRET and TOP SECRET to a woman working for an unnamed company.

All the emails were sent between Feb. 14, 2018, and June 1, 2020, according to court filings. Prosecutors identified the recipient by her initials, R.F., but did not reveal where she worked. It’s not clear whether R.F. is facing criminal charges. The emails were uncovered after an FBI investigation, federal prosecutors said.

Online court records do not list a defense attorney for Unkenholz. Attempts to reach Unkenholz on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Unkenholz was an NSA engineer focused on encryption technology and at one point worked on the agency’s Signals Intelligence program. Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT, is government intelligence derived from hacking into foreign agents’ communication systems, radar and other electronic devices.

At one point during their correspondence, R.F. held a top-secret security clearance with the NSA, according to court filings. Prosecutors say R.F.’s clearance expired in July 2019 when she changed jobs, and at no point was she supposed to receive classified material through her company email server.

Each of Unkenholz’s 26 counts carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. If convicted, it is unlikely he would face the maximum penalty.