Australia

This is wild and interesting! IT consultant is approached to make some reports. IT consultant makes reports with open information he finds online, embellishes his stuff by saying he spoke to KRudd, and just makes shit up.

Still goes to prison, not for espionage - because he didn't steal any government secrets. But for State interference. His dodgy lies might damage the Australia/China relationship.

The reports were handed to Ken or Evelyn in person – sometimes at restaurants and cafes devoid of other people – in exchange for envelopes containing the equivalent of thousands of dollars in cash.

While the information was worthless, the jury accepted prosecution submissions that the relationship with Csergo and his contacts was valuable.

Ultimately, Smith ruled it was important to deter the wider community from being wooed into compromising Australia’s national security.

This is the part that is most interesting to me. You ask a consultant to consult, and offer them envelopes of cash for the work. Of course a lot of them are going to say "yes" and not ask too many questions. But you can be imprisoned for this - even when the bulk of what you are providing is stuff you can glean from government websites, reports and whatever you find online with a bit of personal speculation and fibs sprinkled in. Not actual government clearance stuff.

Ignorance of the law is not a defence and all that, but I wouldn't have realised that what he had done is illegal. Which I suppose is the Judge's point.