THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250457
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
The Navy said Wednesday that Machinist Mate 1st Class Kurt G. Lessenthien will be formally charged early next week in connection with an attempted sale of top secret information about nuclear submarines to a supposed Russian government official.
Lessenthien, arrested at an Orlando, Fla., motel Monday for allegedly passing the information to an FBI agent posing as a Russian, is confined to the brig at the Norfolk Naval Base.
A Navy spokesman said Lessenthien has been assigned a defense counsel, but the counsel's name was not available.
Lessenthien, who served in Norfolk from January 1993 to October 1995 as machinist for the fast attack submarine Albany, was being held in the brig, the Navy's equivalent of a prison, pending charges.
Lt. Bob Ross, a spokesman for the Navy's Atlantic Command, said Lessenthien, who turns 30 today, is being confined to prevent flight and ``to protect classified information, because he has demonstrated a propensity for releasing it.''
The Navy said the government was tipped off that he was ``in the market'' to sell secrets, but never hooked up with a real foreign agent, according to the Associated Press.
``An FBI agent posing as a foreign representative approached him and met with him at an Orlando, Fla., motel,'' Navy Commander Stephen Pietropaoli said. ``The agent paid him cash; he handed over what he said were classified documents and then they arrested him. He was dealing the entire time with U.S. agents.''
He faces multiple military law violations, including espionage. ILLUSTRATION: Lessenthien
KEYWORDS: ARREST ESPIONAGE NAVY by CNB