A 71-year-old former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying on behalf of China. Ma, originally from Hong Kong and later a naturalized U.S. citizen, served in the CIA from 1982 to 1989 before joining the FBI later in his career. His arrest in August 2020 came after he admitted to an undercover FBI agent that he had sold U.S. secrets to the Chinese government.
Ma’s sentencing, which took place on Wednesday, followed his guilty plea to conspiring to pass national defense information to China. In May, he reached a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors, agreeing to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a reduced sentence. As part of this agreement, Ma is required to participate in ongoing debriefings with U.S. agencies for the rest of his life, including undergoing polygraph tests.
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors confirmed that Ma has been cooperative, already participating in several interviews with government agents. His espionage activities date back years, with officials revealing that he conspired with a relative, also a former CIA agent, to provide sensitive information to Chinese intelligence officers.
The investigation into Ma’s activities revealed that in 2004, while living in Hawaii, Ma took a contract linguist position with the FBI. Unbeknownst to him, the FBI had hired him as part of a sting operation to track his espionage contacts. Despite this, Ma continued to sell secrets, with one video reportedly showing him receiving $50,000 in cash for classified information. Ma’s collaborator, identified as his brother, died before he could face prosecution.
