United States of America v. Portia Anyamba

Knoxville, Tennessee, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with one count of acting as an agent of the Republic of South Africa in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. § 951, and one count of making false statements in her security clearance application in violation of Title 18, U.S.C. § 1001.

Reported by Kent Morlan

In 2023 and 2024, Portia Anyamba, 59, currently of Knoxville, Tennessee, worked as a Program Management Operational Specialist in the National Security Program Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (“ORNL”). ORNL is a unique facility located in the Eastern District of Tennessee that was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project and is currently a United States Department of Energy facility dedicated to energy, innovation, and national security, among other things.

An investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Nashville Field Office and the United States Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence revealed that Anyamba, a former Brigadier General in the South African Air Force, was acting in the United States under the direction and control of the Republic of South Africa and provided materially false statements in connection with her efforts to obtain a security clearance.

Anyamba was found guilty and was sentenced to serve six months’ imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release. As a component of her sentence, she was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine.