A former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.
Ma, who was arrested in August 2020, admitted to an undercover FBI agent that he had sold U.S. secrets to China.
Born in Hong Kong, Ma became a naturalized U.S. citizen and worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989 before later joining the FBI.
As part of his plea agreement, Ma is required to cooperate with prosecutors for the remainder of his life, which includes participating in debriefings with U.S. government agencies.
According to the Associated Press, he will also be subjected to polygraph tests during these debriefings.
During his sentencing hearing, U.S. government lawyers acknowledged his cooperation, noting that Ma had already participated in several interview sessions with federal agents.
Authorities revealed that Ma worked with a relative, who was also a CIA officer, to pass sensitive information to Chinese intelligence agents.
A recorded meeting in Hong Kong showed Ma counting $50,000 (£38,000) in cash as payment for the secrets they disclosed, according to federal prosecutors.
In 2004, while residing in Hawaii, Ma secured a position as a contract linguist at the FBI’s Honolulu office.
The FBI, already aware of his espionage activities “hired Ma as part of a ruse to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts”, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
According to the AP, the unnamed collaborator was Ma’s brother, who died before he could be prosecuted.
At a court in Hawaii on Wednesday Ma was jailed for 10 years, as agreed with prosecutors, followed by five years of supervised release.
“Let it be a message to anyone else thinking of doing the same,” FBI Honolulu Special Agent-in-Charge Steven Merrill said in a statement, according to the AP.
“No matter how long it takes, or how much time passes, you will be brought to justice.”