A former CIA officer has been sentenced to ten years in prison for the sale of US secrets to China

Alexander Ma, a former CIA officer, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for selling US secrets to the Chinese government.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for his involvement in espionage activities on behalf of the Chinese government.

In August 2020, Ma, 71, was apprehended after confessing to an undercover FBI agent that he had sold US secrets to China.

Ma, a naturalized US citizen born in Hong Kong, served as an agent for the CIA from 1982 to 1989 before transitioning to the FBI.

Ma is required to cooperate with US authorities “for the rest of his life” as a condition of his plea agreement. This includes participating in debriefings with government agencies and undergoing polygraph tests.

Prosecutors verified that Ma has already participated in numerous interviews with federal agents during a sentencing hearing in Hawaii on Wednesday.

Ma and a relative, who also worked for the CIA, collaborated to share sensitive information with Chinese intelligence officers from the Shanghai State Security Bureau, according to officials. In one instance, prosecutors disclosed that Ma was captured on video counting $50,000 in cash in exchange for the confidential information they had provided.

Ma accepted a contract position as a linguist at the FBI’s Honolulu office after relocating to Hawaii in 2004. Nevertheless, federal authorities had already been monitoring him. The FBI subsequently verified that Ma was employed as part of an undercover operation that was intended to collect additional evidence regarding his espionage activities.

The collaborator, who was suspected to be Ma’s sibling, passed away prior to his prosecution. Ma will be subject to five years of supervised release in addition to the 10-year prison sentence.

In a statement, FBI Honolulu Special Agent-in-Charge Steven Merrill issued a severe warning, stating, “Let this serve as a warning to any other individual contemplating the same course of action.” You will be brought to justice, regardless of the duration.