10 years’ prison for ex-CIA agent who spied for China
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Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, a native of Hong Kong who became a naturalised US citizen, was arrested in August 2020.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent who pleaded guilty in May to spying for China was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Sept 11, said the US Justice Department.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, a native of Hong Kong who became a naturalised US citizen, was arrested in August 2020
Ma, who worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989, admitted to providing classified national defence information to intelligence officers of China’s Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB), the Justice Department said in a statement.
According to court documents, a relative of Ma, who was not identified and has since died, also worked for the CIA, from 1967 to 1983, and was a co-conspirator.
The Justice Department said both men held top secret security clearances.
It said Ma and his co-conspirator met SSSB agents in Hong Kong in March 2001 and provided them with classified information in return for US$50,000 in cash.
Two years later, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Hawaii, the Justice Department said.
“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,” it said, adding that he worked part-time for the FBI from August 2004 to October 2012. AFP
