Former CIA
Officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was sentenced to ten years in prison
on Wednesday. The 71-year-old had been convicted in May of spying for China.
The sentence was the result of
a plea agreement, the US Justice
Department said. The defendant avoided a lengthier sentence by admitting to his
role in passing classified information to the Shanghai State Security
Bureau (SSSB).
Ma worked for the CIA from
1982 to 1989. He was accused of conspiring with a relative, who had also worked
for the agency, to deliver "a large volume" of national defense
information to Chinese
spies in exchange for $50,000 in 2001.
Two years later, Ma applied
for a job as a linguist at an FBI field office in Hawaii.
"The FBI, aware of Ma's
ties to (Chinese) intelligence, hired Ma as part of a ruse to monitor and
investigate his activities and contacts with the SSSB," the Justice
Department said, adding that he worked part-time for the FBI between 2004 and 2012.
The Hong Kong-born US citizen was first arrested in August 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment