A former CIA officer who accepted numerous gifts and payments in exchange for spying for China was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday.
Alexander Yuk Chin Ma, 71, of Honolulu, was convicted of conspiring to collect and provide national defense information to the People's Republic of China (PRC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a press release.
Ma was arrested in August 2020 after he admitted to undercover FBI agents that he provided classified information to an operative working for China's Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB).
Ma served with the CIA from 1982 to 1989, and a co-conspirator and relative also served with the CIA from 1967 to 1983.
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This image, included in the criminal complaint against Alexander Yuk Chin Ma, shows a screenshot of a video taken by an undercover FBI agent of Ma during a meeting in January 2019. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
According to the Justice Department, both men held top secret security clearances, had access to classified CIA information, and had signed non-disclosure agreements.
In his plea agreement, Ma admitted that he was contacted by SSSB officers in March 2001 and arranged a meeting between them and a co-conspirator.
After convincing their partners, the two met with SSSB operatives for three days in a hotel room in Hong Kong.
The Justice Department said the conspirators provided SSSB with a large amount of classified information for $50,000 in cash and that the two men agreed to continue providing assistance to Chinese authorities.
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Two years after agreeing to cooperate with the Chinese government, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist with the Honolulu field office of the FBI. The FBI, aware of Ma's ties to China, hired him to covertly monitor and investigate his activities and contacts with the SSSB.
Marr reportedly worked part-time off-site for the FBI from August 2004 until October 2012.
In February 2006, the SSB asked Ma to ask his co-conspirators to identify the four suspects in the photographs, and at least two were identified.
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The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that a CIA officer who provided classified information to China has been sentenced to prison. (Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Justice Department said Ma confessed to conspiring with partners and the SSSB to communicate and transmit information that he knew would be used against the United States or to assist China.
The government said at Wednesday's hearing and in court documents that Ma was convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage spanning many years. The documents exchanged were obtained by co-conspirators between 1967 and 1983, the government said in court documents.
As part of the agreement, Ma is required to cooperate with the United States for the rest of his life, including participating in questioning by U.S. agencies.
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He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by five years of probation.
