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Former CIA Officer Sentenced to 10 Years for Espionage in Hawaii
HONOLULU, HI — Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 71, of Honolulu, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiring to gather and deliver national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), according to a recent court ruling.
Ma, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to commit espionage, a serious breach of national security that caused the government to expend substantial investigative resources. His sentence includes five years of supervised release after serving his 10-year prison term.
The sentence was imposed by Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson on [today’s date] in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ma’s arrest occurred in August 2020, after he admitted 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).
Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 until 1989. His blood relative, identified as co-conspirator #1 (CC #1) in court documents, who is deceased, also worked for the CIA from 1967 until 1983. Both men held Top Secret security clearances that granted them access to sensitive and classified CIA information and signed non-disclosure agreements.
Ma’s scheme involved facilitating the exchange of information between his relative and the SSSB, which consisted of classified CIA information that CC #1 had obtained between 1967 and 1983. 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. In March 2003, while living in Hawaii, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist in the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office, but was hired as part of a ruse to monitor and investigate his activities and contacts with the SSSB.
The government noted that Ma was convicted of a years-long conspiracy to commit espionage, which caused the government to expend substantial investigative resources. 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.
Key Facts
- State: Hawaii
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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