Mr. Ma conspired with his blood relative, also a former CIA officer, to provide classified U.S. national defense information to the Chinese regime.
A former CIA officer pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to spy for the Chinese regime over a decade in a federal court in Honolulu, the Department of Justice announced on May 24.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in 2020 and charged with conspiracy to transfer top-secret information to the Chinese regime’s intelligence officials.
Mr. Ma, who worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989, conspired with his blood relative, also a former CIA officer, to provide classified U.S. national defense information to the Chinese regime.
During his tenure at the CIA, Mr. Ma held a top-secret clearance and signed multiple non-disclosure agreements, acknowledging his duty to protect U.S. government secrets. After leaving the agency, Ma lived and worked in Shanghai, China, before relocating to Hawaii in 2001.
Notably, his blood relative had access to CIA top secret information, including “the identities of covert CIA officers,” according to a court document.
The document says the two former CIA officers conspired with Chinese intelligence officials to share classified national defense information over a decade.
Prosecutors said the espionage scheme began with three days of meetings in Hong Kong hotel rooms in 2001, where Mr. Ma and his relative met officers of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), the regime’s top intelligence agency. During these meetings, the two former CIA officers provided highly classified information on the CIA’s personnel, internal structure, operations, and communication methods. Part of these meetings was videotaped, showing Mr. Ma receiving and counting $50,000 in cash for the secrets they divulged.
The plea deal showed that Mr. Ma sought employment with the FBI, aiming to regain access to classified information for Chinese intelligence. In 2003, he applied for a job as a contract linguist with the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office.
Knowing his ties to Chinese intelligence, the FBI hired Mr. Ma as part of an investigative plan to monitor his activities. From August 2004 to October 2012, he worked as a contract linguist, reviewing and translating Chinese language documents at an off-site location.
By Aaron Pan
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