Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a U.S. court on Wednesday for spying for China in exchange for cash, golf clubs, and other expensive gifts.
The 71-year-old was arrested in August 2020 after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he had sold U.S. secrets to China.
In May, Ma struck a deal with federal prosecutors, who recommended the 10-year sentence in exchange for his guilty plea to a conspiracy charge for gathering or delivering national defense information to a foreign government.
The agreement also requires Ma to undergo polygraph tests at the U.S. government’s request for the rest of his life. A U.S. judge approved the deal and sentenced him accordingly, as confirmed by court records.
Who is Alexander Yuk Ching Ma?
Born in Hong Kong, Ma moved to Honolulu in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1975. He joined the CIA in 1982, served overseas, and resigned in 1989, during which time he held a top-secret security clearance. Later in his career, he worked for the FBI.
U.S. officials revealed that Ma collaborated with a relative, also a CIA agent, to share classified information with intelligence officers from the Shanghai State Security Bureau. Prosecutors stated that a recorded meeting in Hong Kong showed Ma counting $50,000 in cash as payment for the secrets they passed on.
