A New Orleans furniture salesman who spied for the People's Republic of China and helped the Beijing government obtain secret U.S. military information was sentenced Friday to nearly 16 years in prison.

The sentence for Tai Kuo, 58, was in line with what prosecutors had requested and more than twice as long as the term sought by defense lawyers.

"I have no one to blame but myself," Kuo told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema at Friday's sentencing hearing. "I'm going to shoulder this remorse and guilt for the rest of my life."

Kuo, a native of Taiwan and a naturalized U.S. citizen, masqueraded as a Taiwanese agent when in fact he was working for the government in Beijing. He convinced a Pentagon analyst to give him classified information about U.S.-Taiwanese military relations.

Preliminary assessments by the Department of Defense have determined that the actual damage inflicted by Kuo to national security was minimal, but analysts have not yet completed their review.

Court records indicate that Kuo received $50,000 for his actions from an unidentified Chinese agent, who lured Kuo into espionage with promises of helping him secure business deals in China.

Kuo in turn gave thousands of dollars in gambling money and gifts to the Pentagon analyst who aided his efforts, along with an offer of future employment.

Kuo is a member of a well-known Taiwanese family; he is the son-in-law of Xue Yue, a Chinese nationalist general who was a close associate of Chiang Kai-shek. Continued...