Ex-CIA Agent gets sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment for spying for China

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, an ex-CIA agent has been sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment for conspiracy to spy on China. The federal court announced the verdict on November 23. 

CIA agent sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment 

Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 55, who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Hawaii. He left the CIA in 2007 and was hired by the Chinese agents to deliver information on US security and defences. According to the prosecutors, Shing Lee acted as an informant for the Chinese Government and paid heavy amount of money to disclose the information on US national defences. 

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The prosecution claimed that Lee received a huge sum of money

Lee was taken into custody in May after he pleaded guilty. The Chinese authorities later dismantled their network of informants. However, there was a conflict between the prosecution and the defence regarding the punishment for the crime. The prosecution argued that Lee received more than $840,000 from the Chinese intelligence officers to leak the information he has gathered about the US national defences in 13 years of his service. The Prosecution said that the actions of Lee, retaining the information about the national defence materials at the same time keeping contacts with the foreign nationals. 

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‘Lee sold out his country’

On the other hand, the defence argued that there is no evidence that the money received by Lee was from Chinese intelligence and there is no proof that he disclosed any US defence information to China. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger, while announcing the verdict said that ‘Lee sold out his country’. He said that Lee should have acted responsibly and should have stayed committed to his country. He further added that he conspired with the foreign officials and during the investigation lied about his deeds. According to the reports, Lee pleaded guilty revealing that he conspired and did send the secret information to the People's Republic of China. 

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