On June 17, 2026, Portia Anyamba, a 59-year-old former Brigadier General in the South African Air Force residing in Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan to six months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a $9,500 fine. Her sentencing follows a plea agreement in which she pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent for the Republic of South Africa and making false statements on a security clearance application.

An investigation by the FBI and the Department of Energy revealed that while working as a Program Management Operational Specialist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2023 and 2024, Anyamba operated under the direction of South African intelligence. Law enforcement monitored her regular communications and physical meetings in Knoxville with a high-ranking official from South Africa’s State Security Agency. During a scheduled meeting on November 7, 2024, FBI personnel intercepted Anyamba and seized a laptop computer she had been instructed to bring.

Concurrently, Anyamba attempted to secure a U.S. government security clearance by falsifying her SF-86 application form, falsely claiming she had no ongoing foreign contacts, and instructing her personal references to conceal her connections to the South African embassy. Following the prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, federal officials emphasized that the joint investigation successfully mitigated a significant risk to national security and protected the sensitive integrity of the ORNL facility.