Saturday, November 23, 2019

Ex-CIA officer sentenced to 19 years for spying for China

Former CIA agent Jerry Chun Shing Lee.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer was sentenced Friday (Nov. 22) to 19 years in prison for spying for the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

According to court documents, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, Lee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government on May 1.

“Lee betrayed his own country for greed and put his former colleagues at risk. The seriousness of his betrayal and crime is demonstrated by today's sentencing,” said Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office.


Lee left the CIA in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong. In April 2010, two Chinese intelligence officers (IOs) approached Lee and offered to pay him for national defense information he had acquired as a CIA case officer. The IOs also told Lee they had prepared for him a gift of $100,000 cash, and they offered to take care of him “for life” in exchange for his cooperation.

He was arrested in Honolulu in 2012. A search of his hotel room found a thumb drive and documents with sensitive information about his activities as a CIA officer.

“Mr. Lee served as a CIA officer and was entrusted with extremely sensitive national security information, and he broke that trust with no regard for the consequences,” said John Brown, Assistant Director of Counterintelligence for the FBI. “His actions aided a foreign government, hurt our national security, and jeopardized the safety of his former intelligence colleagues."

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