Alexander Yuk Ching Ma
A former CIA officer, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71 years old, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison over charges of passing classified information belonging to the United States government to the Chinese government. Ma was arrested in August 2020 and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate national defense information to a foreign nation. In the light of this, he was sentenced on Wednesday. His cooperation with federal prosecutors means that he got a 10-year term with a lifetime commitment to polygraph tests whenever the US government requests.
Ma was born in Hong Kong but became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1975. He was employed with the CIA between 1982 and 1989 and later worked as a contract linguist for the FBI. According to court documents, Ma’s espionage began in the late 1980s, when he and his brother passed classified information to Chinese intelligence officers during a meeting in a Hong Kong hotel, receiving $50,000 in return.
Although his brother was never indicted due to Alzheimer’s and is now deceased, Ma continued to work with the Chinese intelligence community. While with the FBI, he pilfered classified documents and took trips to China, where he was paid in cash and given a pair of high-end golf clubs.
As Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of FBI Honolulu said after the sentencing of Ma, “Let it be a message to anyone else thinking of doing the same. No matter how long it takes, you will be brought to justice.”
Ma has, in fact already cooperated with the U.S. government. He has provided extensive information in a series of interviews following his guilty plea. In fact, it was noted that despite the 10-year sentence, Ma will be under strict supervision for five years following his release, submitting to further debriefings and polygraph tests.
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