• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FBI Studies

  • Home
  • Ray Batvinis
    • Speaking
    • Research
  • Blog
    • Videos
  • Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies
    • Praise
    • Chapter 1
    • Book Reviews
    • Book Lecture Video
  • Origins of FBI Counterintelligence
    • Praise
    • Book Review
    • Introduction
    • Chapter One
    • CSPAN Video
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • History News
    • Store
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Blog / Case study on college student recruited to be a spy

April 15, 2014 By Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD

Case study on college student recruited to be a spy

Glenn ShriverThe FBI has recently released two videos about the Glenn Shriver espionage case to alert other college students who are studying abroad to the possibility of being targeted for recruitment by a foreign intelligence service or entity.

(FBI) Glenn Duffie Shriver seemed like an average college student—majoring in international relations at a college in Michigan and interested in seeing the world.

During his junior year (2002-2003), he attended a study abroad program at a school in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China (PRC).

He developed an interest in Chinese culture and had considerable proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, so after graduating from college in 2004, he returned to the PRC to continue his language studies and to look for work.

Around October 2004, Shriver—living in Shanghai and financially strapped—responded to an English ad offering to pay individuals to write political papers.

A woman named “Amanda” contacted him, met with him several times, and then paid him $120 to write a paper.

A few months later, she reached out to Shriver again, saying she thought the paper was good and asked if he’d be interested in meeting her associates. He agreed.

Amanda introduced him to two associates who said they were interested in developing a “friendship” with him and who began suggesting that he consider applying for U.S. government jobs.

Eventually, Shriver realized that the men and Amanda were affiliated with the PRC government; nonetheless he agreed to seek a government job.

Over the next few years, that’s exactly what he did—receiving a total of $70,000 in exchange for applying for jobs—until his scheme was uncovered and he was arrested by the FBI in 2010.

He ultimately pled guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Shriver later admitted in court that his ultimate objective was to get a job with a U.S. government agency that would give him access to classified information, which he would then provide to the PRC officers in return for cash payments.

To a recent college graduate, $70,000 seemed like a lot of money, and the promise of even more was too tempting for Shriver to pass up.

What he didn’t consider, though, were the long-term costs of his actions, which included, as one FBI investigator put it, “throwing away his education, his career, and his future when he chose to position himself as a spy for the PRC.”

More on the case

FBI Brochure: Key to U.S. Student Safety Overseas

FBI Brochure: Safety Tips for Students Traveling Abroad

Advice for U.S. College Students Abroad: Be Aware of Foreign Intelligence Threat

(FBI) Three years ago, Glenn Duffie Shriver, a Michigan resident and former college student who had studied in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was sentenced to federal prison in the U.S. for attempting to provide national defense information to PRC intelligence officers.

According to the Institute of International Education, more than 280,000 American students studied abroad last year.

These experiences provide students with tremendous cultural opportunities and can equip them with specialized language, technical, and leadership skills that make them very marketable to U.S. private industry and government employers.

But this same marketability makes these students tempting and vulnerable targets for recruitment by foreign intelligence officers whose long-term goal is to gain access to sensitive or classified U.S. information. Glenn Shriver—prodded by foreign intelligence officers into eventually applying for U.S. government jobs—cited his naivety as a key factor in his actions.

The FBI—as the lead counterintelligence agency in the U.S.—has ramped up efforts to educate American university students preparing to study abroad about the dangers of knowingly or unknowingly getting caught up in espionage activities.

As part of these efforts, we’re making available on this website our Game of Pawns: The Glenn Duffie Shriver Story video (see below), which dramatizes the incremental steps taken by intelligence officers to recruit Shriver and convince him to apply for jobs with the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. We’d like American students traveling overseas to view this video before leaving the U.S. so they’re able to recognize when they’re being targeted and/or recruited.

How do foreign intelligence officers routinely interact with students?

  • Foreign intelligence officers don’t normally say they work for intelligence services when developing relationships with students—they claim other lines of work.
  • Intelligence officers develop initial relationships with students under seemingly innocuous pretexts such as job or internship opportunities, paid paper-writing engagements, language exchanges, and cultural immersion programs.
  • As relationships are developed, the student might be asked to perform a task and provide information—not necessarily sensitive or classified—in exchange for payment or other rewards, but these demands grow over time.
  • Intelligence officers might suggest that students—upon completion of their schooling—apply for U.S. government jobs (particularly for national security-related agencies).

What can students to protect themselves while studying abroad?

  • Be skeptical of “money-for-nothing” offers and other opportunities that seem too good to be true, and be cautious of being offered free favors, especially those involving government processes such as obtaining visas, residence permits, and work papers.
  • Minimize personal information you reveal about yourself, especially through social media.
  • Minimize your contact with people who have questionable government affiliations or who you suspect might be engaged in criminal activity.
  • Properly report any money or compensation you received while abroad on tax forms and other financial disclosure documents to ensure compliance with U.S. laws.

Above all, keep your awareness level up at all times. “A keen awareness,” said Glenn Duffie Shriver in a warning to other students, “is the most powerful weapon [against being recruited].”

And when you return to the U.S., report any suspicious activity to your local FBI office. You can also contact your local U.S. Embassy or Consulate while abroad.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Blog, Video

Primary Sidebar

Follow Ray

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Books by Dr. Ray Batvinis

Origins of FBI Counterintelligence

Hoovers Secret War Against Axis Spies book cover

Recent Posts

  • Sometimes the story is about the spies who aren’t there
  • Former CIA Counterintelligence Chiefs Weigh in on The Fourth Man
  • The Charles McGonigal Case
  • The Ghost of Angleton — Review of The Fourth Man
  • Spycraft 101 Podcast Interview
  • Message from Director Wray Regarding Search at Mar-a-Lago, Florida
  • World War II House of Secrets
  • Walking a Tightrope: FBI’s John Cimperman and the ULTRA Secret
  • Watergate: Competing Fond Memories
  • CODENAME: WALLFLOWER — The Guy Liddell Diaries
  • Message from FBI Director Wray re Bob Levinson
  • COVID 19 Message from the FBI
  • A Morning to Remember
  • The First Victory
  • The spies among us: More Chinese agents digging up secrets in Florida

Watch Videos

videopixCheck out all the videos on FBI Studies related to FBI history and espionage. Video Page

FBI Studies Tweets

My Tweets

Footer

About

Historical FBI Studies by Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD, author of "The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence" and "Hoover's Secret War Against Axis Spies: FBI Counterintelligence During World War II." About Ray Batvinis

Contact Ray

Contact Form
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Watch Videos

videopixCheck out all the videos on FBI Studies related to FBI history and espionage. Video Page

Recent Posts

  • Sometimes the story is about the spies who aren’t there
  • Former CIA Counterintelligence Chiefs Weigh in on The Fourth Man
  • The Charles McGonigal Case
  • The Ghost of Angleton — Review of The Fourth Man
  • Spycraft 101 Podcast Interview
  • Message from Director Wray Regarding Search at Mar-a-Lago, Florida
  • World War II House of Secrets
  • Walking a Tightrope: FBI’s John Cimperman and the ULTRA Secret
  • Watergate: Competing Fond Memories

Copyright 2023 Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD | Website by CJKCREATIVE.COM

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.