A Sharon man pleaded guilty on Friday to keeping thousands of classified military documents at his home without authorization, prosecutors said.
Ahmedelhadi Yassin Serageldin, 66, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, was charged with willfully retaining national defense information and will be sentenced next April, prosecutors said. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Serageldin previously had secret-level security clearance as an employee of the defense contractor Raytheon.
In 2017, Raytheon found evidence that he downloaded and retained classified national defense information from the company’s computer network, prosecutors said. He later misled the company during its investigation in an effort to, according to prosecutors, “hinder, delay or prevent” communication with law enforcement.
Serageldin was “terminated” from Raytheon in May 2017, prosecutors said, and indicted last year on an obstruction of justice charge. That charge, however, will be dropped as part of a plea deal when he is sentenced next year.
According to prosecutors, officials executing a search warrant at Serageldin’s home found thousands of paper documents and electronic filings belonging to both Raytheon and the U.S. Department of Defense, many of which were classified.
Court filings list five specific documents he had that were classified as “secret” and related to U.S. military programs involving missile defense, prosecutors said.
___
© 2019 The Patriot Ledger
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
