A former CIA Officer pleaded guilty Friday to espionage charges in a federal courtroom in Honolulu, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a 72-year-old former CIA officer and FBI contract linguist, pleaded guilty to espionage charges and admitted to spying for China over a decade, according to AP. This guilty plea follows his 2020 arrest after a comprehensive investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, which gathered substantial evidence against him, including a video from 2001 showing Ma engaging in espionage activities.
Ma is seen on the video providing classified information to officers from China’s Ministry of State Security and receiving $50,000 in exchange. The secrets he revealed included sensitive details about CIA operations, assets, secure communication practices, and operational tradecraft, the outlet reported. His espionage activities continued for years, wherein he accepted significant sums of money and lavish gifts in return for stolen U.S. intelligence.
A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI accused of spying for China for at least a decade has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to gather or deliver national defense information to a foreign government. https://t.co/p0OAaFtjCW
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 25, 2024
As part of a plea agreement, Ma has consented to a 10-year prison sentence, a substantial reduction from the potential life sentence he faced, AP stated. Ma was born in Hong Kong and relocated to Honolulu in 1968, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1975. He embarked on a career with the CIA in 1982, received an overseas assignment the following year, and resigned in 1989 while holding a top-secret security clearance. Before returning to Hawaii in 2001, Ma resided and worked in Shanghai, China.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson disclosed that Ma’s employment as a part-time contract linguist was strategically planned as a surveillance measure to monitor his interactions with Chinese intelligence officers, the outlet reported. The FBI chose to notionally employ him at an off-site location in Honolulu, the plea agreement indicated.
This photo shows a general view of China’s and USA’s flags during a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng at the Guangdong Zhudao Guest House in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, on April 5, 2024. (Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2006, while residing in Hawaii, Ma received photographs from Chinese intelligence officers of individuals they were targeting. Sorenson explained that Ma then persuaded a relative, also implicated as a co-conspirator, to disclose at least two of these identities. Ma confirmed the accuracy of Sorenson’s statements and acknowledged that he breached non-disclosure agreements signed during his tenure with the CIA. (RELATED: Lawmaker’s Researcher Among Three Alleged Chinese Spies Arrested In Two NATO Countries)
A defense motion highlighted that Ma’s older brother, also implicated as a co-conspirator in the indictment, developed Alzheimer’s a decade earlier and had become completely incapacitated by the condition. Prosecutors did not pursue charges against him due to his mental incompetency. Sorenson noted in court Friday that the co-conspirator has since passed away.
Ma’s actions not only jeopardized national security but also betrayed the trust placed in him by the United States. His sentencing is scheduled for September 11, where the final judgment will be passed by a judge, according to AP.
