A sailor who previously served in Japan aboard a guided-missile destroyer was found guilty in a court martial of sharing classified defense information with representatives of a foreign government. 

A military court found Chief Petty Officer Bryce Pedicini guilty on Friday, April 19, according to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He was convicted on counts of attempted espionage, failure to obey a lawful order and attempted violation of a lawful general order. The decision came after a seven-day trial. 

Charges against the sailor were announced in February, months after his arrest in 2023. According to the case against him, Pedicini shared “classified and national defense information“ with an agent of a foreign government — the case did not specify which nation — on seven different occasions in Virginia between November 2023 and February 2023. Pedicini did so while pretending to be writing research papers, NCIS said.

“This guilty verdict holds Mr. Pedicini to account for his betrayal of his country and fellow service members,” NCIS Director Omar Lopez said in a statement.