A 60-year-old Virginia man, Kevin Patrick Mallory, allegedly gave officials in China access to Top Secret and Secret documents during March and April trips to Shanghai the Fairfax Times reports.

The former federal contractor was arrested on June 22 on charges of gathering or delivering defense information to aid a foreign government, and making material false statements could carry up to a lifetime prison sentence.

“Kevin Mallory was previously entrusted with Top Secret clearance and therefore had access to classified information, which he allegedly shared and planned to continue sharing with representatives of a foreign government,” according to FBI Assistant Director Andrew W. Vale, who heads the agency’s Washington Field Office. “Furthermore, he allegedly misled investigators in a voluntary interview about sharing of this classified information. The FBI will continue to investigate those individuals who put our national security at risk through unauthorized disclosures of information.”

Mallory, a fluent Mandarin speaker, is a self-employed consultant with GlobalEx LLC. Due to his career in government agencies and defense contractors, he received a Top Secret security clearance, which was terminated in October 2012 upon leaving government service.

The unveiling of state and trade secrets to the Chinese government has been an ongoing national security challenge for the United States. In May, six Houston employees at a global engineering firm were charged with sending trade secrets to a Chinese manufacturing company.