Current:Home > reviewsEx-CIA officer accused of spying for China expected to plead guilty in a Honolulu courtroom -FundPrime
Ex-CIA officer accused of spying for China expected to plead guilty in a Honolulu courtroom
View
Date:2025-04-12 20:57:54
HONOLULU (AP) — A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI accused of spying for China for at least a decade is expected to plead guilty Friday in a federal courtroom in Honolulu.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2020. The U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing it amassed “a war chest of damning evidence” against him, including 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.
The video shows Ma counting the $50,000 he received from the Chinese agents for his service, prosecutors said.
During a sting operation, he 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, prosecutors said.
The secrets he was accused of providing included information about CIA sources and assets, international operations, secure communication practices and operational tradecraft, charging documents said.
Ma pleaded not guilty to a count of conspiracy to gather or deliver national defense information to a foreign government. Court records showed him due to enter a change of plea Friday morning. He would face up to life in prison if convicted.
Ma was born in Hong Kong, moved to Honolulu in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1975. He joined the CIA in 1982, was assigned overseas the following year, and resigned in 1989. He held a top secret security clearance, according to court documents.
Ma lived and worked in Shanghai, China, before returning to Hawaii in 2001. He was hired as a contract linguist in the FBI’s Honolulu field office in 2004, and prosecutors say that over the following six years, he regularly copied, photographed and stole classified documents. He often took them on frequent trips to China, returning with thousands of dollars in cash and expensive gifts, such as a new set of golf clubs, prosecutors said.
In 2021, Ma’s former defense attorney told a judge Ma believed he was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and was having trouble remembering things.
A defense motion noted that Ma’s older brother developed Alzheimer’s 10 years prior and was completely disabled by the disease. The brother is referred to as a co-conspirator in the indictment against Ma, but prosecutors didn’t charge him because of his incompetency due to Alzheimer’s, the motion said.
Last year a judge found Ma competent and not suffering from a major mental disease, disorder or defect.
veryGood! (84)
Related
- B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
- Justice Department issues new report aimed at improving police hiring nationwide
- How many votes are needed to win the House speaker election?
- Charity Lawson Reveals How Fiancé Dotun Olubeko Is Supporting Her DWTS Journey
- North Carolina justices rule for restaurants in COVID
- Donald Trump told to keep volume down after getting animated at New York civil fraud trial
- Sophia Bush's Ex Grant Hughes Supportive of Her Amid Ashlyn Harris Relationship
- Mega Millions numbers from Tuesday's drawing: Jackpot reaches $69 million
- The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
- Xi, Putin detail 'deepening' relations between Beijing and Moscow
Ranking
- The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
- Here's Sweet Proof John Legend's 3-Month-Old Son Wren Is His Twin
- Joran van der Sloot Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Extorting Natalee Holloway’s Mom
- Britney Spears Accuses Justin Timberlake of Cheating on Her With Another Celebrity
- Can Bill Belichick turn North Carolina into a winner? At 72, he's chasing one last high
- Tyler Perry building new home for 93-year-old South Carolina woman fighting developers
- US says initial independent review shows no evidence of bomb strike on Gaza hospital
- Japan’s exports rise and imports decline in September as auto shipments to US and Europe climb
Recommendation
Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
People of African ancestry are poorly represented in genetic studies. A new effort would change that
Racial gaps in math have grown. A school tried closing theirs by teaching all kids the same classes
Golfer breaks world record for most 18-hole courses played in one year
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
Palestinians in Gaza feel nowhere is safe amid unrelenting Israeli airstrikes
Prosecutors seeking to recharge Alec Baldwin in fatal shooting on Rust movie set
Small-town Nebraska sheriff faces felony charge but prosecutors release few details about the case