Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, of Honolulu, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to gather and deliver national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
According to court documents, Ma and a blood relative of his (identified as co-conspirator #1 or CC #1) were naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in Hong Kong and Shanghai, respectively. Both Ma and CC #1 worked for the CIA — CC #1 from 1967 until 1983, Ma from 1982 until 1989. As CIA officers, both men held top secret security clearances that granted them access to sensitive and classified CIA information and signed non-disclosure agreements that required them to maintain the secrecy of that information.
As Ma admitted in the plea agreement, in March 2001, when he no longer worked for the CIA, at the request of intelligence officers employed by the PRC’s Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB), Ma convinced CC #1 to meet with SSSB intelligence officers in a Hong Kong hotel room. Over three days, Ma and CC #1 provided the SSSB with a large volume of classified U.S. national defense information. At the conclusion of the third day, the SSSB intelligence officers provided CC #1 with $50,000 in cash, which Ma counted. Ma and CC #1 also agreed at that time to continue assisting the SSSB.
As detailed in the plea agreement, in March 2003 while living in Hawaii, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist in the FBI Honolulu Field Office. The FBI, aware of Ma’s ties to PRC intelligence, hired him as part of an investigative plan to work at an off-site location where his activities could be monitored and his contacts with the PRC investigated. Ma worked for the FBI from August 2004 until October 2012.
Ma further admitted that in February 2006 during this monitored employment by the FBI in Honolulu, he convinced CC #1 to provide identities of at least two individuals depicted in photographs provided by SSSB intelligence officers. The individuals’ identities were and remain classified U.S. national defense information. Ma confessed that he knew this information would be used to injure the United States or benefit the PRC but deliberately engaged in criminal conspiracy with CC #1 and SSSB nonetheless.
Under terms of their plea agreement, Ma must cooperate with U.S. authorities including debriefings by government agencies. If accepted by Court, it calls for an agreed-upon sentence of ten years imprisonment. Sentencing is set for Sept. 11.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of Justice Department’s National Security Division; U.S Attorney Clare E Connors for District Hawaii; Assistant Director Counterintelligence Kevin Vorndran FBI; Special Agent Charge Steven Merrill FBI Honolulu Field Office made announcement after Chief US District Judge Derrick K Watson conducted change plea hearing.
The FBI Honolulu & Los Angeles Field Offices investigated case.
Assistant US Attorneys Ken Sorenson & Craig Nolan District Hawaii; Trial Attorneys Scott Claffee & Leslie Esbrook National Security Division Counterintelligence Export Control Section prosecuting case.
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