(Washington) A former agent of the CIA, the main intelligence agency of the United States, was sentenced Wednesday to ten years in prison for spying for China, announced the American Department of Justice.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, pleaded guilty in May to “conspiracy to collect and deliver national defense information” to China.
He was arrested in August 2020 after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he had helped pass confidential information to Chinese security services, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma worked at the CIA from 1982 to 1989, as did a member of his family from 1967 to 1983.
According to court documents, he was approached in 2001 by Chinese intelligence officials who asked him to arrange a meeting with the relative, who has since died. During a meeting at a Hong Kong hotel, they handed over classified information in exchange for $50,000 in cash, the sources said.
In 2003, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma applied for a job as a translator at the FBI’s Hawaii office, where he was then living. The FBI, “aware of Mr. Ma’s ties to Chinese intelligence,” nevertheless hired him so it could monitor his activities and had him work part-time from August 2004 to October 2012, the department said.