A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to gather and deliver national defence information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The former officer was identified as Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, of Honolulu.

"Ma was arrested in August 2020, after admitting to an undercover FBI employee that he had facilitated the provision of classified information to intelligence officers employed by the PRC’s Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB)," US Department of Justice said in a statement.

According to court documents, Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 until 1989.

"His blood relative (identified as co-conspirator #1 or CC #1 in court documents), who is deceased, also worked for the CIA from 1967 until 1983. As CIA officers, both men held Top Secret security clearances that granted them access to sensitive and classified CIA information, and both signed nondisclosure agreements," the statement said.

As Ma admitted in the plea agreement, in March 2001, over a decade after he resigned from the CIA, Ma was contacted by SSSB intelligence officers, who asked Ma to arrange a meeting between CC #1 and the SSSB.

"Ma convinced CC #1 to agree, and both Ma and CC #1 met with SSSB intelligence officers in a Hong Kong hotel room for three days. During the meetings, CC #1 provided the SSSB with a large volume of classified U.S. national defense information in return for $50,000 in cash. Ma and CC #1 also agreed to continue to assist the SSSB," the statement said.

In March 2003, while living in Hawaii, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist in the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office. The FBI, aware of Ma’s ties to PRC intelligence, hired Ma as part of a ruse to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts with the SSSB. Ma worked part time at an offsite location for the FBI from August 2004 until October 2012.

As detailed in the plea agreement, in February 2006, Ma was tasked by the SSSB with asking CC #1 to identify four individuals of interest to the SSSB from photographs. Ma convinced CC #1 to provide the identities of at least two of the individuals, whose identities were and remain classified U.S. national defense information.

Ma confessed that he knowingly and willfully conspired with CC #1 and SSSB intelligence officers to communicate and transmit information that he knew would be used to injure the United States or to advantage the PRC.

In court documents and at the sentencing hearing, the government noted that Ma was convicted of a years-long conspiracy to commit espionage, a serious breach of national security that caused the government to expend substantial investigative resources.

"The government also noted that Ma’s role in the conspiracy was to facilitate the exchange of information between CC #1 and the SSSB, which consisted of classified CIA information that CC #1 had obtained between 1967 and 1983," the statement said.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ma must cooperate with the United States for the rest of his life, including by submitting to debriefings by U.S. government agencies.

At the sentencing hearing, government counsel told the court that Ma has been cooperative and has taken part in multiple interview sessions with government agents.