Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for China in exchange for money, golf clubs, and other luxury gifts.
The 71-year-old was arrested in August 2020 after confessing to an undercover FBI agent that he had sold U.S. secrets to China.
In May, Ma reached a plea deal with prosecutors, who recommended a 10-year prison sentence in return for his guilty plea to charges of conspiring to provide national defence information to a foreign government. As part of the deal, Ma will undergo polygraph tests whenever requested by the U.S. government for the rest of his life.
A U.S. judge approved the agreement and sentenced Ma to 10 years in prison, as confirmed by court records.
Who is Alexander Yuk Ching Ma?
Ma was born in Hong Kong and moved to Honolulu in 1968. He became a U.S. citizen in 1975 and joined the CIA in 1982, holding a top-secret security clearance. He resigned in 1989 and later worked for the FBI.
U.S. officials said Ma worked with a relative, also a CIA agent, to share classified information with Chinese intelligence officers. In one recorded meeting in Hong Kong, Ma was seen counting $50,000 in cash as payment for the secrets he sold.
