Former CIA Officer Sentenced for Spying for China

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a 71-year-old former CIA officer, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling US secrets to China. Ma, who facilitated classified information to China's Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB), will also face five years of supervised release and must cooperate with US authorities.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage. Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, of Honolulu, was apprehended in August 2020 after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he sold secret US information to China, the US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

Ma confessed to providing classified data to officers from China's Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB). In addition to his prison term, he will undergo five years of supervised release, according to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division, US Attorney Clare E. Connors for the District of Hawaii, and FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the National Security Branch.

Court documents revealed that Ma, a US citizen born in Hong Kong, served the CIA from 1982 to 1989. Officials noted that Ma had worked alongside a now-deceased relative who was also a CIA officer from 1967 until 1983. Both held top-secret security clearances and signed non-disclosure agreements. In 2001, Ma was contacted by SSSB agents and arranged a meeting between his relative and the SSSB, during which they shared classified information for $50,000 in cash.

Living in Hawaii in March, Ma became a contract linguist at the FBI's Honolulu Field Office. Prosecutors explained that the FBI recruited Ma to monitor his contacts with SSSB as part of a subterfuge. He worked part-time for the FBI from August 2004 to October 2012. Under his plea agreement, Ma is required to cooperate fully with US government agencies for life.

(With inputs from agencies.)