A Hong Kong-born former CIA officer has pleaded guilty to spying for China, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. Announced Friday.
Alexander Yuk Chin Ma, 71, and his Shanghai-born co-conspirators were both naturalized citizens who had worked for the CIA decades ago.
His unnamed relatives, Mentioned He served at the bureau from 1967 to 1983, merely as “Co-Conspirator No. 1” (CC #1), while Ma served there from 1982 to 1989.
According to the Justice Department, both men “held top secret security clearances giving them access to classified CIA information and had signed non-disclosure agreements obligating them to keep that information confidential.”
In his plea agreement, Ma admitted that he and CC1 met with intelligence officers from China’s Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) over a three-day period at a Hong Kong hotel in 2001 and provided them “large amounts of classified U.S. defense information.”
At the end of the third day, the Chinese operatives handed over $50,000 in cash to Ma and CC1, at which point they agreed to continue assisting the SSSB.
In March 2003, while living in Hawaii, Ma applied to work as a contract linguist with the FBI’s Honolulu field office.
“The FBI knew about Ma’s ties to China. [People’s Republic of China] “As part of their investigative planning, the intelligence agencies had Ma work at off-site locations where they monitored his activities and investigated his contacts with China,” the Justice Department said.
Marr worked for the FBI from August 2004 to October 2012.
In his plea agreement, the convicted spy also admitted that in February 2006 he persuaded CC1 to provide classified information about at least two people who appeared in photographs provided by SSSB operatives.
This happened while he was still employed by the FBI.
“Ma confessed that he knew this information, and the information conveyed to him in March 2001, would be used to harm the United States or benefit China, and in any event knowingly participated in the criminal conspiracy with CC#1 and SSSB,” prosecutors said.
Under the terms of the plea deal, Ma must cooperate fully with the United States, including by agreeing to be questioned by government authorities. The agreement calls for him to be sentenced to 10 years in prison on September 11.
