The US Department of Justice said on Friday that a former CIA agent had entered a guilty plea to spying for China.
Despite having not worked for the CIA for 12 years, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, a native of Hong Kong who later obtained US citizenship, acknowledged to having given Chinese authorities “a large volume of classified US national defense information” in 2001.
In a statement released by the Justice Department, Ma’s blood relative, who was born in Shanghai and later became an American citizen, set up Ma’s meeting with representatives of the Shanghai State Security Bureau. The agency referred to this former CIA agent as “co-conspirator #1.”
The statement stated that Chinese “intelligence officers provided CC #1 with $50,000 in cash, which Ma counted” at the conclusion of the third day of the meeting in a hotel in Hong Kong.
At that time, Ma and CC #1 also decided to keep helping Chinese intelligence.
As part of an investigative plan, Ma was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Hawaii in 2003 as a linguist so that his interactions with China could be examined and his activities could be tracked down.
Chinese intelligence provided Ma with photographs of at least two people, and in 2006, Ma “convinced CC #1 to provide the identities of at least two individuals depicted in photographs.”
Ma acknowledged that both the disclosed information and the information he gave in 2001 “would be used to injure the United States or to benefit” Chinese authorities.
Ma was employed by the FBI until 2012; it was not evident from the statement how he removed his mask.
The guilty plea deal, if approved by the courts, guarantees Ma’s cooperation with US authorities and calls for a 10-year prison sentence that might be imposed on September 11.
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