Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was arrested in August 2020 after admitting to an FBI agent that he sold US secrets to China.
A former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agent has been sentenced to ten years in prison for spying for the Chinese government.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, was arrested in August 2020 after admitting to an FBI agent that he sold US secrets to China.
The man, a naturalised US citizen born in Hong Kong, worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989. He later went to work for the FBI.
Part of his plea agreement assumes that he will have to co-operate with prosecutors ‘for the rest of his life, including undergoing interrogations by government agencies’. He will also have to undergo polygraph tests during those interrogations, reports the Associated Press.
In the judgement, handed down on Wednesday, the US government's lawyers revealed that Alexander has been cooperative and has even taken part in ‘several interview sessions with government agents’.
The authorities say that the man collaborated with a relative, who was also a CIA agent, to provide secrets to agents from the Shanghai security department.
One of the meetings in Hong Kong was captured on video showing Alexander counting out 50,000 dollars in cash (around 45,000 euros) as payment for the secrets shared.
While living in Hawaii in 2004, he took a job at the FBI office in Honolulu as a linguist.
The FBI, already aware of the espionage, ‘hired Alexander as part of a ploy to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts,’ prosecutors explained during the hearing. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
