A US Department of Defense electrical engineer has turned his world upside down after printing 155 pages from 20 documents, all of which were marked top secret and classified, from his DoD workspace, brought them home with him – and was collared on his way to Mexico.
Gokhan Gun, 51, of Falls Church, Virginia, a dual citizen of the US and Turkey, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. Now jobless, he is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17 and faces up to five years in the clink.
As a civilian employee for the DoD, Gun had been granted a top-secret security clearance with access to sensitive compartmented information (SCI). And as such, he had been trained on how to handle and store classified information, and was aware that secret and top-secret documents must "be stored in a [government-approved] security container" or a vault or storage area built to federal standards.
According to the Feds, Gun also knew that his home wasn't an approved storage facility, and yet beginning around May 2024, he began printing batches of documents from a top secret network while at work, and then left his Virginia workplace shortly after with the documents, many of which were classified intelligence reports, rolled up inside a "partially translucent shopping bag," according to the prosecution [PDF]:
In sum, between May 10, 2024, and August 7, 2024, GUN printed approximately 256 documents, totaling approximately 3,412 pages … FBI has matched the file names from one hundred fifty-five (155) printed pages to twenty (20) documents on the TOP SECRET network that were marked as classified at the time GUN printed them.
It was noted by the Feds that Gun is not prohibited from printing unclassified documents to take home. And they allege that of the 256 aforementioned documents, about 191 were printed after 4pm, which the security personnel say is outside of normal working hours for most employees at the facility.
On August 8, a judge signed warrants approving the FBI's search of two of Gun's homes, along with his vehicle, and any media storage devices.
The next morning, when Gun was scheduled to fly on a personal trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, FBI agents executed those warrants.
According to the court documents, the agents showed up at his Falls Church home ahead of Gun's 6:52am flight, and found a file marked "top secret" in a backpack that it appeared Gun was taking on the trip.
He told the cops he was going to Mexico on a fishing trip with two friends after previously telling his employer he had no travel companions. And he denied ever taking any classified materials from his workspace. "Gun suggested that, if there were documents with classification markings, the classifications might be expired," the court filings allege.
All of this could well be a big misunderstanding rather than an attempt at espionage. It's possible Gun, through carelessness or stupidity, didn't fully appreciate the ramifications of taking his work home as it involved classified info, even though it's drilled into government workers you really must not screw-up like that. It's also possible Gun didn't believe it was any of his employer's business who was travelling to Mexico with him.
But regardless of Gun's intent, it's a pretty safe bet that if you have been granted top-secret clearance, and you print classified documents from the network and store them at home, there will be repercussions. Unless, of course, you are the President of the United States. ®