A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Southern California engineer to five years in prison for selling sensitive information about surveillance satellites to a person he believed was a Russian spy.

Gregory Allen Justice, 50, of Culver City worked on commercial and military satellites and could have received up to 35 years for the crime. His employer's name was never provided in the released government documents, but a Boeing spokesman confirmed Monday to CNBC it had a former employee by the name of Gregory Allen Justice.

"We won't be commenting on any of our practices related to this incident," the Boeing official said Monday.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times reported that Justice worked for Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, citing information provided last year by his father, William.

In announcing the five-year sentence, U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu called the engineer's actions "extremely troubling" because he was willing to sell the information to someone he believed to be an agent of the Russian government.

In May, the engineer pleaded guilty to charges of economic espionage and violating the Arms Export Control Act for selling sensitive satellite information to an undercover FBI employee, whom Justice believed to be the Russian agent.