Former CIA officer accused of spying for China pleads guilty

A former CIA agent pleaded guilty Friday to spying for China, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, a Hong Kong native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, admitted to providing “a large volume of classified U.S. national defense information” to Chinese authorities in 2001, despite not having been employed by the C.I.A. for 12 years.

According to the Department of Justice statement, Ma’s meeting with representatives of the Shanghai State Security Bureau was initiated by another former CIA agent, a blood relative of Ma, born in Shanghai and also a naturalized American citizen, identified in the agency’s statement as “co-conspirator #1.”

At the end of the third day of the meeting at a Hong Kong hotel, “Chinese intelligence officers provided CC #1 with $50,000 in cash, which Ma counted,” the statement said.

“Ma and CC #1 also agreed at that time to continue to assist” Chinese intelligence.

In 2003, Ma was hired as a linguist by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Hawaii “as part of an investigative plan, to work in an offsite location where his activities could be monitored” and his contacts with China could be investigated.

In 2006, Ma “convinced CC #1 to provide the identities of at least two individuals depicted in photographs that were provided to Ma” by Chinese intelligence.

Ma confessed that the information provided, as well as the one he provided in 2001, “would be used to harm the United States or to benefit” the Chinese authorities.

Ma worked for the FBI until 2012 and it was not clear from the statement how he was unmasked.

If accepted by the courts, the plea agreement, which guarantees that Ma will cooperate with US authorities, provides for a 10-year prison sentence, which could be handed down on September 11.