US: Former CIA, FBI agent indicted for passing information to China

Andrew Yuk Ching Ma and a family member allegedly passed secrets to Beijing's intelligence agency for years

A federal court accused a former CIA and FBI operative of selling US secrets to China and disclosing identities of Chinese informants to the US, according to federal court documents unsealed Monday in Hawaii.

An undercover agent posing as a Chinese intelligence officer last year lured Andrew Yuk Ching Ma into confessing, the unsealed indictment said, by saying he wasn’t paid his due for at least a decade of work.

The agent kept in contact with 67-year-old Ma since then, passing him money in exchange for information. In a meeting this month, Ma expressed willingness to continue working for Beijing, the indictment said, but “would prefer to discuss opportunities after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.”

Ma, a naturalized citizen born in Hong Kong, was arrested on August 14, yet his name was only disclosed Monday.

Another family member of his is also similarly implicated in the indictment, although he was not prosecuted due to advanced age (85 years old). He remains anonymous in the indictment.

Ma attained high-level security clearance working at the Central Intelligence Agency from 1982 to 1989, while his relative worked there from 1967 to 1983.

The pair provided information to China’s security agency, according video and audio recordings dating back as early as March 2001 obtained by the FBI.

In the early recording, the two receive $50,000 from Beijing agents. It is unknown how the FBI received the evidence.

The indictment did not detail crimes after 2010, and it is uncertain how Ma was involved until last year.

Another former CIA agent from 1994 to 2007, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, was sentenced to 19 years last November for passing information to China.