A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to keeping classified national defense documents at his home without proper authorization, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Ahmedelhadi Yassin Serageldin, 66, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to willfully retaining national defense information, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling's office. He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for April.
Federal agents conducting a search warrant at his Sharon home found thousands of paper documents and electronic files belonging to Raytheon Co. or the Department of Defense, many of which were marked as containing classified information, prosecutors said.
Five pertained to U.S. military programs involving missile defense and were classified "secret."
Serageldin was a systems engineer at Raytheon from August 1997 until he was fired in May 2017. He had security clearance in order to complete assignments on several defense contracts involving radar technology.
Raytheon uncovered evidence Serageldin had violated company security police while investigating him for alleged time card fraud.
A telephone message was left with his attorney Friday.
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