Former CIA officer accepted gifts from China in exchange for secret information and was sentenced to prison

A former CIA officer who received numerous gifts and money in exchange for spying for China was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a press release that 71-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma of Honolulu has been convicted of conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In August 2020, Ma was arrested after confessing to an undercover FBI employee that he had been passing classified information to intelligence officers working for the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) in the People’s Republic of China.

Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989, and his business associate and relative worked for the CIA from 1967 to 1983.

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Both men, the DOJ said, had top secret security clearances that gave them access to confidential and secret CIA information. Both men also signed nondisclosure agreements.

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Ma admitted in his guilty plea agreement that in March 2001 he was contacted by SSSB officers to arrange a meeting with them and his associate.

After convincing their partner, the two men met with SSSB intelligence officers in a Hong Kong hotel room, where they spent three days.

The Justice Department said a co-conspirator gave the SSSB a large amount of classified information for $50,000 in cash, and both men agreed to continue working with the Chinese agency.

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Two years after agreeing to help the Chinese government, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist at the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office. The FBI knew about Ma’s ties to the PRC and hired him to covertly monitor and investigate his activities and contacts with the SSSB.

Ma reportedly worked part-time at the FBI’s offsite office from August 2004 to October 2012.

In February 2006, the SSB asked Ma to persuade his associate to identify four persons of interest in photographs. At least two of them were identified.

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The Justice Department said Ma admitted that he knowingly and intentionally worked with his partner and the SSSB to communicate and transmit information that he knew would be used against the United States or to assist the PRC.

During Wednesday’s hearing and in court documents, the government said Ma was convicted of a multi-year conspiracy to commit espionage. The documents in question were obtained by a co-conspirator between 1967 and 1983, the government said in court documents.

Under the agreement, Ma is obligated to cooperate with the United States for the rest of his life, which requires him to submit to interrogations by U.S. agencies.

He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of parole.

Source of original article: Former CIA officer accepted gifts from China in exchange for secret information and was sentenced to prison