According to the indictment, Martin D. worked for a civilian defense contractor from 2017 until spring 2023 and, starting in 2020, was stationed at a U.S. military base in Germany. In the summer of 2024, prosecutors say, he approached Chinese government officials multiple times and offered to hand over classified information about U.S. military operations.
German authorities first detained the suspect in November 2024 at Frankfurt airport, following an arrest warrant issued by the German Federal Court of Justice.
His arrest drew international headlines at the time, with German media reporting that he had sought to sell secrets from inside U.S. military installations on German soil. He has remained in pretrial detention since.