Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) accused of spying for China, pleaded guilty on Friday (May 24) in a federal courtroom in Honolulu.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) accused of spying for China, pleaded guilty on Friday (May 24) in a federal courtroom in Honolulu. Ma, 72, also worked as a contract linguist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He has been accused of spying for China for almost a decade, a report by the news agency Associated Press said. In a court filing, the US Justice Department said it amassed “a war chest of damning evidence” against him. The evidence included an hourlong video of Ma and an older relative — also a former CIA officer — providing classified information to intelligence officers with China’s Ministry of State Security in 2001. Also read | FBI chief says Chinese hackers pose threat to US critical infrastructure Prosecutors said that the video showed Ma counting the $50,000 received from the Chinese agents for his service. He was arrested for this crime in August 2020 and has been in custody since then. A naturalised US citizen born in Hong Kong According to the Justice Department, Ma is a naturalised American citizen born in Hong Kong. "According to court documents, Ma began working for the CIA in 1982, maintained a Top Secret clearance, and signed numerous non-disclosure agreements in which he acknowledged his responsibility and ongoing duty to protect U.S. government secrets during his tenure at CIA," the department said. "Ma left the CIA in 1989 and lived and worked in Shanghai, China before arriving in Hawaii in 2001," it added. Prosecutors said that during a sting operation, the 72-year-old accepted thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for past espionage activities, and he told an undercover FBI agent posing as a Chinese intelligence officer that he wanted to see the “motherland” succeed. Ma's sentencing scheduled for September 11 As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Ma pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defence information to a foreign government. The deal calls for a 10-year sentence, but a judge will have the final say at Ma’s sentencing scheduled for September 11. Without the deal, he faced life in prison. (With inputs from agencies)

Former CIA officer accused of spying for China pleads guilty

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Former CIA officer accused of spying for China pleads guilty