Washington, September 11, 2024: Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer who pleaded guilty in May to espionage charges, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday. Ma, 71, a Hong Kong native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in August 2020 for providing classified national defense information to China.
Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989 and held top-secret security clearances. According to court documents, he conspired with a relative, also a former CIA officer, to share U.S. government secrets with Chinese intelligence officers from the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB). Both men reportedly met with SSSB agents in Hong Kong in 2001 and provided classified information in exchange for $50,000.
Ma’s relative, who was not identified in the statement, worked for the CIA from 1967 to 1983 and is now deceased.
After leaving the CIA, Ma applied for a position as a contract linguist with the FBI in Hawaii in 2003. Aware of his connections to Chinese intelligence, the FBI hired Ma as part of a sting operation to monitor his activities. He worked for the FBI part-time from 2004 to 2012.
The Justice Department emphasized that Ma’s sentencing underscores the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to identify and prosecute individuals who endanger national security through espionage.
